The Sun Casts the Darkest Shadows

by HoeDM_Gear

Summary:

Everyone told Levi to just ignore the slightly creepy omega that came into the cafe. He wasn’t dangerous, just weird. No harm, no foul. He’d show up at the start of Levi’s shift and stay there to the end of it sometimes, just hovering. But he was a paying customer. At worse, he was annoying with his excessive ramblings.

Now, Levi wishes he’d been firmer about his discomfort.

Chapter 1

Notes:

Hello my lovely readers ;)

I present to you, my Levi Dark Week Submission! 😌 I have about 14 chapters written out in advance. I will update the first 5 or so chapters daily, then switch to weekly uploads to hopefully give myself time to finish writing it.
Yeah, remember when I said I didn't want to post unfinished fics...?😅

As always, heed the tags and make the decision that is best for you. This is Dead Dove. There will always be other fics :) In fact, I have a nice Levi/Mike simmering in the beta/editing stage, so there is always tomorrow ;)💕

Happy reading!💜😌

Levi wakes up in a dingy, dark basement, head foggy, tied to a chair. The wood beneath him is sturdy, strong. Ropes crisscross over his chest and legs, and a circle of the same material loops around each ankle, lashing him down tight. His hands are handcuffed behind his back with thick, heavy shackles and a rectangle of duct tape is pressed over his mouth. Wha–?

He groans, squinting in the dim, dank lighting of the single naked lightbulb hanging on a chain in the ceiling. The ceiling is incomplete, each rafter exposed and long slats of hardwood floor layered neatly overtop. There’re no windows that he can see. If not for the light of the single bulb, he’d be in complete and utter darkness. Though the light is dingy and weak, Levi makes out a bit of his surroundings.

The basement seems small at first, but it becomes increasingly apparent that it is packed full of endless junk. Stacks of overflowing cardboard boxes reach almost to the ceiling. Rows of rickety shelves line the walls, each one packed to the brim with more junk. Old tools, gardening supplies, knick knacks, rotting books, plastic bins — there’s so much random items stuffed onto each shelf and spilling out onto the floor below. A few tall rusty tool boxes are just over to his left, right beside a large, crowded workbench. Every project is covered with a thick layer of dust, like the person working on them never came back one day. Screwdrivers, nails, and random pieces of metal and wood lay scattered on the table top. 

Wherever he is, it’s a home once well-lived in. Everything down here has fallen into irrelevancy. Forgotten memories left abandoned in the dark. The old tricycle hanging from a hook on the ceiling next to an ancient looking bike makes him wonder who on earth lives here. 

To his right, a steep set of stairs descend up into darkness.

A way out. 

Levi immediately tries to get up, wriggling in his binds, but finds himself stuck fast. Whoever tied him up knows their knots. He can’t remember who got him, but he remembers the soft scent of an omega and then… nothing. Levi furrows his brows, looking around, trying to jog his memory.

He was at work at the cafe. They closed up late. He had told Petra to go home early and that he would finish up — even walked her to her car to make sure she was safe. She had class in the morning. Stuff more important than this meaningless job. Then, he stayed and cleaned up by himself. He hadn’t minded. He had a particular way of doing things and it was nice to know everything would be perfect when he left. 

When he finally finished up late that night, he’d taken the shortcut through the park. Unsavory individuals always lined the shadows of the wooded area, but Levi was used to holding his own. He’d dealt with attackers and tweaking drug addicts before. It was an unfortunately common skill for him now. Most knew not to fuck with him. He was strong, and despite his height and statue, could hold his own in a fight. 

But… he doesn't feel hurt. Levi cranes his neck to look around and wiggles in his seat again. The sturdy wood barely squeaks. Not a part of him was sore or pulsing with agony. There’s no way he was attacked. So, what—?

Soft, padding footsteps walk overhead. Levi whips his head up to look at the ceiling, ears straining for any hints of what was going on. In contrast to all those horror movies where the slow thumping footsteps thudded overhead, Levi barely hears a sound, like the owner of the footsteps is barefoot. The person above him is quiet, almost dainty. Light on their feet. 

They walk around for a while, obviously going about their life, while Levi’s chained up in the dark. Whoever it is, maybe they will help?

Heart pounding, Levi starts to call out behind the tape. Most of it’s a muffled struggle to form words, so he opts to just open his throat and scream out. Fuck it. That does the trick. The footsteps halt. Levi pauses, sucking in a huge breath through his nose and listens. It’s like the person above him is listening too. He must have scared them. 

Again, he cries out, trying to put as much urgency and desperation into it as he can. Finally, pounding footsteps sound over the floorboards. The person comes sprinting across the house towards what Levi could only assume is the entrance to the basement. 

Tears spring in his eyes. He’s saved!

Who knew what the person who had taken him had in store for him. Only a sick, twisted mind would capture another soul and keep them immobile in a basement. That was the work of wackjobs. Creeps who belonged in an asylum. Levi never wanted to meet his would-be torturer. He’s so lucky this person’s here. It must be a kid or a teenager, judging by their light footsteps, or maybe someone just very small. Either way, Levi hopes they have a phone. Or a knife to cut his ropes. He also has to hope they’ll be willing to help him and not also at the mercy of their captor themselves—

Up the steep flight of stairs, the door swings open, spilling bright light down the dusty steps to illuminate a harsh rectangle on the stained cement at the bottom. His surroundings come more into focus, showing him more hordes of clutter and a lot of intimidating looking tools, but he hardly pays it attention, more concerned with being rescued. Levi squints against the bright light and looks up, trying to see his savior. After being in the dark for so long, the mere brightness from upstairs is blinding, like it was the pearly gates of the entrance of heaven. A small, slender silhouette comes into view, blocking some of the eye-watering light. 

Levi’s heart seizes and he calls out once again from behind the tape, straining against his ropes. 

Quickly, the person thumps down the steps with small, galloping footsteps, nearly falling over themselves to get to the bottom. Levi appreciates the sense of urgency. When he was free, he was never going to be able to thank them enough. 

When they get to the bottom, they’re still a little hard to see, but Levi can make out a blond halo at the top of their head, cut into a boyish look. Then, the smell of them hits him. 

…

He knows that scent…

Eyes widening, he sits back in his chair, no longer trying to strain forwards away from his bindings. 

With much slower steps, the individual pads over to him. Each step they take makes his heart thump anxiously in his chest. This is bad.

Slowly, they come into view, making their way past the harsh angle of light and into the doom and gloom that houses Levi. His silver eyes lock onto that sweet, angelic face, and he feels his body go cold all over. 

Armin…

“Hi Levi,” the omega says sweetly, tilting his head innocently. He clasps his hands behind his back and rocks up onto his toes, cheeks coloring with blush like it’s an effort to even speak to the alpha. “I’m glad you’re awake.”

Levi doesn’t say or do anything, frozen. 

Armin. A regular at the cafe Levi works at. Who also has a not-at-all subtle, and very raging, obvious crush on him. To the point where it’s weird. Lately, Levi had begun to hate when Armin came in. 

At first, they had a decent enough professional relationship. Armin started coming in during his first semester at the local college, desperately searching for caffeine like any other sleep-deprived college student. They exchanged pleasantries and Levi had to admit that at first, the omega had been very sweet and was pretty cute. He’d been genuinely interested in the omega, asking about his day, and perhaps even slipping a smooth compliment in or two, just to see the cute blush on his nose. 

He’d learned the omega was a nursing student and had transferred from his old college in the spring of the last year. He tipped well. Was funny, if not a bit awkward.

Maybe things would have been different… If—

If only Armin wasn’t bat-shit insane and obsessive. 

Pretty soon, Armin would come in on the weekends the moment they opened and sit in a booth that directly faced the register and ‘studied’ until he was kicked out as they were closing. Some could argue that wasn’t weird, but Levi wasn’t an idiot. He swore he felt Armin’s eyes on him every second of those shifts. When he would look up, the omega would be totally engrossed in his textbooks, but the moment Levi looked away, the feeling of being watched would be back. It always made Levi leave those shifts feeling distinctly yucky.

Sometimes, that dirty feeling of being watched continued even up until he slammed his apartment door shut. Which did argue that it was all in his head. There was no way someone was following him. Levi was always smart about walking home at night. 

During the week, Armin would often overstay his welcome, getting overly-chatty with Levi and remaining at the pickup spot, talking away long after he’d gotten his order. Levi would barely have time to grunt out responses as orders piled up and he was elbow-deep in cafe lattes half the time. But Armin never seemed to mind that he was distracted. To be honest, the guy really couldn’t catch a hint. 

Any sort of infatuation Levi had for the omega had long fizzled out and died after Armin turned weirdly… desperate. Levi was used to flirty customers, but Armin just left a bad feeling in his chest any time they interacted. Though Levi had no proof, he was almost certain the omega was stalking his socials. But even when Levi privated them, Armin still seemed to know where he’d been or who he’d hung out with lately.

But all of this doesn’t add up. Had Armin really attacked him? How had he ended up in the omega’s basement of all places?

Levi’s current situation does not look good. 

“I’m sorry about the tape and stuff,” Armin apologizes softly, creeping forward, arm outstretched to brush across Levi’s covered mouth. His fingertip trails lovingly over the outline of the alpha’s lips. 

Levi jerks his face away, breath coming laborious and stilted through his nose. His gut screams at him that something was terribly wrong — that he must get away.

Armin pouts. “Don’t be like that. I know you’re angry at me, but I did this for us.”

Levi shakes his head, struggle renewed. He can’t be near Armin for another second and not lose his mind. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Why was he ever nice to this psycho? If Levi had just treated him like any other asshole that came through, maybe he wouldn’t be in this mess. 

The omega bites his lip, looking sad. “I know it’s going to take you a while to get used to your new life, but I’m willing to wait for you…”

As he talks, the omega slowly starts to straddle him in the chair, settling onto Levi’s lap. Levi doesn’t know what to do. His mind screams danger, but he can’t move. His wrists complain as he chafes them raw, trying to jerk them apart. His thighs flex as he tries to kick out, but nothing budges underneath the unforgiving rope.

“Shh, shh, shh,” Amrin hushes him, hands coming up to cup Levi’s face between them. “I know you’re scared now, but trust me. Everything will be better soon.”

There’s a distinctly unhinged glint in the omega’s innocent eyes. Levi knew the guy was weird, but this is a whole other level. 

The omega leans forward, holding Levi’s face in place and presses his lips overtop of Levi’s taped ones in a faux kiss. The alpha barely has a second to register the warmth pressing against him over the tape, before he wrenches his head away, eyes squeezing shut in disgust.

Many sensations register to Levi a moment later. His face is suddenly whipped to the other side, light sparking across his vision from behind his eyelids, and a resounding crack! echoes through the basement. 

The entire left side of his face hurts. Immediately the pain tears a muffle cry from behind the tape and he curls his shoulders up in anticipation of the next blow. 

Armin had slapped him. Not just an open palm slap, but a demanding blow with what felt like the heel of his palm. For sure, there’s going to be a bruise on Levi’s cheek in a few hours.

He can feel his pulse in his throat. It’s like his heart is beating so fast, the sheer volume of his blood is restricting his trachea. 

“Stop playing hard to get, Levi,” Armin growls at him. His tone is scolding. Like this is all just a game to him. “No one’s around, you can drop the act now. I know you love me. I knew it from the moment we first met.”

His breath isn’t evening out, no matter how hard Levi tries to control it. He’s panicking. There’s no other way to describe it. He can’t fucking move and he has his most creepy, obsessive customer sitting on his lap, talking nonsense. He’s flipping the fuck out, okay!

Desperately, Levi shakes his head, trying to protest, but it’s just jumbled mush. Armin shushes him again, petting the side of his face endearingly.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Armin soothes. “We’re together now. No one can stop us from being with each other.”

Sweety, the omega loops his arms around Levi’s neck and nuzzles into him, hugging him. Levi scratches his nails over the skin of his hands, hoping to wake himself up, because this must be a nightmare. Armin cuddles into him like their lifelong sweethearts, a slight purr picking up in his throat. The sound pricks at Levi’s alpha, but common sense is stronger. He’s not fooled. Armin is not as sweet as he seems, underneath all that veneer. 

As countless thoughts blur through his head in a raging storm, something Armin does stops it all in its tracks. 

In one gentle motion, the omega grinds his bottom across Levi’s groin, and ice fills his veins. What could be played off as the omega adjusting himself is quickly dismissed as he does it again. Each motion deliberate. The implication is not lost to Levi. 

Here he is, restrained and kidnapped in a psycho’s basement. And he’s being grinded on. Levi knows where this goes. He just never thought…

Stuff like this doesn’t happen to alphas. It doesn’t happen to people like him. Levi’s always been careful. He’s smart and strong. He knows how to fight. How did he let this happen?

While he’s mentally kicking himself, trying to imagine himself miles away, back home safe in his apartment, Armin rubs their groins together until they're both hard in their pants. Levi’s barely half-mast, too stressed and freaked out to truly get stiff, but Armin’s scent turns pleased all the same. 

Giggling, he drops a hand between them and gropes between them, feeling Levi up. “I knew you wanted me. Look at that!”

No. Levi doesn’t. He just can’t help his body’s natural reaction. He doesn’t know why—

He shouldn’t have gotten hard even in the first place. An ugly feeling starts to grow in his gut — a tiny little thing the size of a bean. It’s small, but it’s there, and Levi hates it. Hates himself. 

Armin’s giggles are soft and breathy against his skin. Like they’re just two lovers fooling around. The omega paws at his clothed cock, rubbing him slowly through his jeans. Levi can feel the heat between Armin’s legs against his thighs. His entire form trembles and it’s like his body has forgotten how to breathe. 

The sound of his zipper being undone makes Levi want to vomit. He squeezes his eyes shut and exhales shakily. This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening to him.

Soft, delicate fingers fish him from his underwear, bringing his cock out into the chilly basement air. Levi feels gross. He wants to stop. He wants to go home.

“Levi~” Armin’s is full of breathy awe. “So big… All for me?”

Levi’s eyes feel strangely wet. It occurs to him that he’s crying. He can’t remember the last time he cried.

Armin kisses along his neck. It feels good. So does the hand on his cock, stroking him nice and tight. Everything about it feels wrong. No matter how much his body says it feels good, Levi wants to simply shrivel up and cease to exist. 

The omega teases at his adam’s apple, nipping at his skin enticingly, eyes full of bright excitement. Levi wonders if he can feel his pulse, rabbit-fast in his veins. Armin rocks against him again, slowly stroking Levi’s cock as he does so.

“I can’t believe I finally have you,” the omega whispers against his jaw. The chair creaks underneath them from the movement of the omega’s hips. The sounds of Levi’s cock being wetly fisted between them makes his stomach plummet. Finally, Levi’s body catches up with what his brain has been telling him. In an instant, Levi’s erection wilts, and he softens quickly in Armin’s hand. It’s just too much. He can’t do this. He can’t breathe. 

“Hey…” Armin wines, frowning and pulling away. He looks down at Levi’s limp cock in his fist, pouting. “C’mon, Alpha, I want to play with you.”

Levi shakes his head. Hot tears leak from the corner of his eyes and drip down his cheeks. Humiliation burns through him. Shame at getting hard. Shame at not being able to stay hard. Shame for crying. 

Levi feels so sick. Too many emotions course through him. His stomach churns with anxiety and disgust. It all sucks. He can’t do this. 

Armin tilts his head, sticking his lip out in a dramatic pout. 

“Don’t you want to knot me? I can make you feel so good, Alpha.”

Levi groans miserably in his throat. 

The omega misinterprets it as an agreement. Maybe he just hears what he wants to hear. Armin adjusts them once more, shucking his own pants down past his knees and lining up the limp tip of Levi’s cock with his slick opening. Armin’s own small cock juts hard and eager between his milky soft thighs. Just the sight of the omega’s arousal makes him feel sick and dizzy. Teasingly, the omega ruts against him, sliding Levi’s tip through his folds, coating his cock in warm, tantalizing slick. Watching an omega’s body move against him should have gotten him going again, but Levi feels anything but turned on.

“Come on, Alpha,” Armin whispers huskily in his ear. “I’m so wet, just for you. Get hard for me, baby. You can have all of me — a big fat knot at the end to complete our fun. You can fill me up all you want.”

No matter what the omega whispers in his ear, no matter how he swivels his hips against Levi’s groin, or presses their chests together to swap their scents, the alpha’s cock remains uninterested. 

Levi doesn’t think he could even muster another half-erection around the omega. He’s too scared shitless to be aroused. Too disgusted.

Finally, Armin huffs, leaning back suddenly in Levi’s lap, dropping his cock. He looks pissed. The omega crosses his arms brattily.

“Fine. Be like that. Weirdo.”

It stings Levi’s pride for some stupid reason and Levi swallows hard, blinking back his tears.

Swinging his leg off of Levi’s the omega rucks his clothes back into place, but doesn’t do up Levi's pants. Levi’s shame increases as he’s left exposed. His soft cock lays limply across his lap, sloppy with an omega’s slick that he doesn’t want. The omega’s arousal seeps into his jeans, spreading a gross, messy stain on the fabric. Bile rises in his throat.

Why does he feel like this? It’s just sex. Or, attempted sex. Alphas love sex. But Levi doesn’t want to have sex with Armin. Then why does he feel so gross? Why does he feel so miserable? He’s glad he didn’t get hard again, but also terrible for not being able to. Is he broken? 

Levi doesn’t know what to think. Relief, maybe. Yeah, maybe relief is what he feels as Armin turns away from him with a final ‘humph!’ and climbs the stairs, disappearing. 

…

The omega returns with a glass of water a few minutes later. Unceremoniously, he strips the tape from Levi’s lips, and the alpha winces at the stinging burn. Armin doesn’t give him the chance to speak before shoving the rim of the cup against Levi’s lips. 

“Drink. I’ve got errands to run. I won’t be back for a while.”

Levi’s first instinct is to refuse. He doesn't want anything from his captor. But… he is terribly thirsty. He hadn’t been able to realize it until he was being offered water. His mouth is cotton-dry and he wonders how long he’s been kidnapped for. Were people even looking for him yet? He wonders if his friends have noticed he hasn’t turned up since last night. 

“Armin,” he rasps, his first words to the omega. “Please… let me go. I won’t tell, you just need to let me go. This is insane.”

“Drink or I leave and you get nothing,” Armin replies. He doesn't even bat an eye to Levi’s pleading. 

Mouth dry, Levi weighs his options. He needs water. Who knew when Armin would offer again? Wordlessly parting his lips, he leans forward and places his mouth at the rim of the glass. Armin tilts it up for him, and doesn’t pull it back until Levi has drunk it all. The water has a bitter aftertaste to it and Levi can’t tell if he’s just made a big mistake or if it’s because it’s been so long since he’s had water. He suspects it’s the first option. Breath shaking, he looks up into the omega’s passive gaze, searching. What does Armin have in store for him?

“There we go,” the omega says, dropping the empty glass onto a workbench, face giving nothing away. “I’ll be back before you know it!” He smiles at Levi and makes his way to the stairs once again. 

“Be good, Alpha!” Armin calls, before closing the door behind him, sealing away the bright rectangle of light and leaving Levi in the gloomy basement alone.

Notes:

Many thanks to Cleaning_Ravioli - my rock for most of these fics 💕🥺 Without their help, I'd still be stuck staring at my screen for eternity.

Hope to see you tomorrow!💜

Chapter 2

Notes:

Welcome to chapter 2!

CW: R/noncon & Levi's mental dialogue being mean to himself :(

Poor, poor Levi...

“Ghh–”

Levi pants, straining against the ropes securing his arms, with a strained grunt. He’s sweating buckets all over and the prickly rope cutting into his skin is driving him insane. It feels maddeningly itchy all over as the oiled little hairs poke into him. His legs and hands have started to go numb after being restricted for so long. After one more pointless flex of his muscles, Levi droops forward against the chest restraints, head hung low. 

It’s no use. 

A lump forms in his throat and he allows a few tears to drip from his eyes. Fuck, he’s thirsty again. 

Because his body temperature is through the roof. He’s covered in grimy sweat. His heart is beating so fast.

And he’s hard. 

…

Levi isn’t exactly sure what was in the water, but it must be some sort of mild rut inducer, or crushed up viagra or some shit. He doesn’t know, and he doesn’t care. All he knows is that he needs to get out before Armin comes back. If he doesn’t then —

He chooses not to complete that thought. Spurred on, Levi jerks at the bindings again. Time is hard to tell down here, where there’s no clock or windows, but it has to have been at least an hour or so. Levi’s wrists have been screaming at him. They’re past chafing and Levi knows the metal has started to cut into his skin. The raw wounds sting with pain anytime he so much as flexes a finger. But he doesn’t let it stop him from jostling around again. 

If he stops now, then it will only get worse. He needs to get free. Maybe kick the door down and run for the nearest neighbor's house. Or call the police from a phone; Levi doesn't know if Armin still has Levi’s cell phone somewhere in the house or if he’s disposed of it, but there has to be a landline or something. There’s always an option. A road maybe? 

Fuck, Levi doesn’t know where the fuck he is. Are they in an isolated cabin in the woods? Are they in Suburbia?

Probably not. Levi screamed himself hoarse earlier and no one came to his rescue. There must not be neighbors, or they simply can’t hear him. Did Armin have some sort of weird sound-proofing on the house?

While he’s flying through every possible option and planning his escape, tugging uselessly at his binds, the floorboards creak overhead. The eerie sound makes Levi halt in place and stare fearfully up the steps into the black hole. 

A stone drops in his stomach.

Armin must be home. He’s out of time. 

 

---

 

The door opens and Armin comes trotting down, a small grocery bag in hand. 

Spying the stiff, raging boner Levi’s sporting, Armin smirks and tilts his head to the side playfully. “Happy to see me?”

Not one bit, but Levi’s stupid alpha brain croons for the omega, so his groin throbs with need and his cock twitches traitorously, beading fluid at the slit. Sullenly, Levi looks to the side, cheeks burning with shame. Armin sets his bag down with a chuckle, tucking a lock of hair behind his ear shyly as he comes to stand in front of Levi. Embarrassment filters in at his own nudity. Armin’s already seen his naked cock before, so it doesn’t quite make sense. Not to mention, the omega rubbed their groins together for crying out loud, but this still feels gross. He doesn’t want Armin to even look at him.

“You could hardly wait for me to get back, huh?” He breathes, appearing flattered that Levi’s responding to the drug he gave him. Freak. “I knew you wanted me, baby, but that bad?”

“Armin,” Levi tries to keep his voice steady, but probably fails. “Stop this.”

There’re tears threatening his lash line, but Levi refuses to cry any more in front of his captor. 

“Why would I stop this? We were meant for each other. I love you.”

Fuck, Armin’s really gone off the deep end. The omega appears genuinely confused as to why Levi would want to be let go. He even cocks his head like a curious dog. 

Levi shakes his head. “No. This —” he tries to motion with his hand but succeeds in doing little more than jerk pathetically in his binds, “— this is not love. This is insane. Let me out, Armin.”

“In a bit,” Armin says softly. His eyes play out a sympathetic look but Levi imagines that this is just him putting on a mask — one of many. He doesn’t really understand what he’s doing. He can’t. Or else he wouldn’t be putting Levi through this. 

“Armin,” Levi tries one more time. “You’re - you’re sick, you need help. Real help; from a professional. I can help you get it. We can go and get you checked into a hospital or something. Just let me out.”

Wrong thing to say. Armin halts, his eyes growing dark. Levi shivers. For such a cute omega, he is intimidating when he needs to be. Armin looks terrifying in this moment, standing in front of him, angry, while Levi is still trapped. The unknown of what the omega could do next is the main point for Levi’s anxiety. Since the omega is unhinged enough to kidnap him and hit him, what else is Armin willing to do?

“Armin, I—”

“No.”

Levi snaps his mouth shut, eyes wide. 

“I’m not sick, Levi,” Armin spits. His fists curl up at his side, fingers working together with anger. “I’m perfectly fine. We need to get you sorted out. That’s why I gave you medicine. To fix you.”

Levi already knew it, deep down, but his heart seizes with fear at the open admission.

He’s not stupid. He knew the omega drugged the water. He just can't believe he fell for it. It’s like the oldest trick in the book. “There’s nothing wrong with me,” he refutes.

Armin’s laugh stings. “An alpha that can’t get hard? For some, sure, but at your age? Levi, you’re perfectly healthy. You just needed some help.”

“I don’t want your help,” Levi spits, suddenly angry, glaring up at his captor. “I want you to let me go!”

Quicker than Levi can process, Armin winds his hand back and slaps him. It stuns him more than hurts him, unlike the first one, but Levi goes quiet, regardless, staring at the ground. His cheek tingles from the omega’s palm, smarting. 

“I don’t want to hit you, Levi,” Armin says quietly. Levi refuses to look up at him. He doesn’t think he could stomach the sight of fake sympathy on the omega’s face. “But you make me so mad when you say stuff like that.”

Clothes rustling make Levi’s eyes go wide where they’re trained on the ground. Whipping his head up, he sees that Armin has already shed his shirt. There’s almost no emotion on the omega’s face as he continues to undress.

“I’m helping you Levi. Soon, you won’t be so upset with me anymore.”

Armin’s ominous words are like a warning bell. Panic seizes Levi’s chest and his struggle to get free is renewed. 

“Armin. Armin! Stop. Just stop. Please.”

Ignoring Levi’s pleas, the omega is completely nude just a few moments later, then he turns his attention to Levi. Humming, he crawls back into the alpha’s lap, thumbing over the soaked material of Levi’s dark t-shirt. “We’ll have to figure out what we're going to do with these later,” he mutters to himself. 

Levi tries to strain his head back, staring up at the ceiling now. He can’t watch. He doesn’t want to think about how close his bare hard cock is to the naked heat between Armin’s legs. 

One last time, he whispers, “Please stop.”

Armin kisses him sweetly on the neck, playing with the longer stands of Levi’s hair above his nape. “Just relax,” he whispers into Levi’s neck. A shudder goes through the alpha and he squeezes his eyes shut with a hard swallow. Armin laps a soft wet tongue at his bobbing adam’s apple, then lifts his hips, smearing Levi’s clothed thighs and cock with dripping slick, and starts to drop down. 

When Armin starts to squeeze Levi inside, hot and wet and tight, the alpha imagines he is anywhere else but there. He’s not in a creepy basement, tied to a chair, with an equally creepy omega seating himself on his cock. He’s just… somewhere else. 

Armin stretches around him and swivels around to pop Levi fully inside. As he’s filled, the omega throws his head back and groans low in his chest. A sound that makes goosebumps break out over the alpha’s flesh. Though it feels good, and he’s stupidly hard, Levi doesn’t want this. That one fact doesn’t change for him while it circulates on repeat in the alpha’s brain with all the other instinctual, pleased thoughts he’s having. While his alpha howls with delight at their finally being friction and drag against his aching cock, Levi knows to be disgusted, because this is…

It doesn’t matter what it is. Levi just has to close his eyes and endure it. It won’t last forever, though it feels like it will, with Armin moaning and rocking in his lap — but it won’t. He has to keep reminding himself of that. Eventually, it will end, Armin will go to sleep, and Levi can plan for an escape. 

First, Levi has to focus on not crying. Because he feels so undeniably gross and dirty. Because — because…

It’s not supposed to feel good.

He’s not supposed to be enjoying this, but… he is. His cock twitches and dribbles a bit where it’s sheathed inside Armin’s slick walls. Every time the omega rises and sinks back onto him, it’s harder and harder for Levi to bite back his noises. 

A few tears leak from the corner of his eyes. 

Why does it feel good?

More than good. It feels fantastic, like every sense has been dialed up to one hundred. Every nerve feels especially sensitive. 

Armin is something else. He’s nice and tight, and he’s so soft inside… He’s warm and his body makes the creamiest noises as it works up and down Levi’s shaft. And—

Levi tastes blood in his mouth, he must have bitten his lip too hard. His fingers are balled into trembling fists behind him. The pain in his wrists blessedly takes him away from the other sensations.

Admittedly, it’s been a while for him. Maybe that’s why he’s reacting the way that he is. A few months of no bed company can make him like that. That’s what’s happening.

Excuses, his brain rudely pipes up. It makes him feel like shit. He’s nasty, getting off on something when he knows it’s wrong. Maybe he is broken. Is Armin right? Does he need to be fixed? 

C’mon, his mind continues, how can you like what he’s doing to you? You’re just as perverted as him!

“No!” Levi sobs quietly, speaking out loud.

Armin shushes him gently. His hands reach up and cup Levi’s jaw between them, angling the alpha’s head to meet their lips together, pecking him softly. “It’s okay Levi. It’s okay to want this.”

“I don’t,” he protests, trying to wrench his head away, but Armin holds fast. 

“You do,” the omega coos. “I can feel it.” He sounds so sure of it and it makes Levi tremble and cry harder. To make his point, the omega swirls his hips as he pulls up, making a damning, wet noise omit from where they’re joined. “Hear that? That’s what love sounds like.”

With surprising strength, the omega wraps his arms around Levi’s neck and hugs him tight. So tight, it’s almost hard to breathe. Levi chokes off, eyes flying open. The omega slowly adjusts himself, stretching out in Levi’s lap to place his tiptoes on the floor. The chair creaks as he does so.

“Here, Alpha,” he croons, nibbling on Levi’s ear. Levi shudders, half from disgust, half from arousal. “I’m going to make it so good for you, you won’t be able to think of anything else.”

Forcefully, the omega buries Levi to the hilt inside of him and Levi gapes, taken aback. Then, Armin lifts himself up, and does it again. Levi can feel the way he stretches and gives around his girth — how he squeezes him tight. The omega rocks and grinds shallowly for a moment, then lifts up, swiveling his hips just right —

Levi slams his eyes shut and groans, squirming. A place deep inside of him needs. It needs Armin squeezing around him, milking his knot, while he cums within him. Fuck! It feels—

“That feel good, Alpha?” Armin whispers, like reading his mind. 

Levi’s responding moan makes the omega grin against his skin. Soft laughter tickles the sensitive skin of his neck. 

From there, Armin wetly fucks him, riding him like he needs something too. Armin rides him with a hunger that steals the breath from his lungs. The omega barely lets up for a moment, coaxing Levi’s length in and out of him in torturous squeezes. Sometimes, Armin purposefully clenches his internal muscles around him, making Levi tremble and whine, while the omega grins down at him. And he does this thing, with his hips — Just the way Levi likes it. 

Just like the way Levi likes to pin his conquests down and rotate inside—

With a gasp, Levi’s eyes fly open. 

Armin rides him perfectly. He does everything the alpha likes, over and over and over again. Like he knows exactly what gets Levi off. 

Whimpering, he tries to open his mouth to speak, but is silenced when Armin slams himself down onto his lap so hard, their thighs meet with a solid sound. For some reason, it makes a feeling within Levi flare. He hides his face in Armin’s neck, trying to muffle the resounding cry of pleasure. Distantly, he hears Armin’s faint giggle, and feels the omega nuzzle into him, hugging him close. The thick, cloying scent of omegan arousal and mating clouds his head, flooding his lungs. It’s all Levi can smell — it feels like he can barely breathe 

“I know, I know,” Armin whispers, never stopping his wonderful, tortuous hips. “Feels good, right? It’s because we’re made for each other. I know exactly what you like, Levi.”

Levi can’t stop the noises. His mouth hangs open, groaning into Armin’s skin, drinking in the scent of his sweat as he works their bodies together in tandem. He doesn’t want to open his eyes anymore. If he does, then this is real. For right now, he wants to pretend that this is not him doing this. He’s not enjoying this. They’re just sensations. It’s not real. 

Armin gasps and moans every time his ass meets Levi’s thighs.

“Oh fuck,” Armin gasps out breathily. With each bounce, a wet squelch echoes from where they’re joined. “Oh fuck~ Levi!”

The omega sinks his fingers into Levi’s hair and wrenches his head back, putting them chest to chest. Armin throws his own head back in mock resemblance. Like this, Levi can’t hide his own moans, forced to cry out to the open air as Armin brings them both closer to hideously perfect completion. Their cries mingle together. A morbid synchronous tune orchestrated by the conductor. 

Closer, Armin starts to lose pace, frantically rolling his hips down over the thickening girth at the base of Levi’s cock. 

“Oh! Yes, yes!” He cries, voice pitching. “Please, Levi! Please!”

In a couple more paces, Armin sinks down, engulfing Levi's knot in one heavy press. The alpha throws his head back as utter bliss explodes behind his eyes. His aching knot throbs once, swelling, as tight muscles clench around it. Finally, after so long of aching and needing, relief rips through him, and Levi’s spinning out of control, blowing his load deep inside the omega. 

From the inside out, his orgasm eviscerates him, shredding every shred of self-respect or morality he might have had for himself. Because Levi can’t take that back. He liked it. Or maybe he didn’t. But he was hard, he came, and he knotted the omega in his lap. 

Weeping openly, Levi drops his head to Armin’s chest and cries, feeling dirtier than he ever has before.

Notes:

I will see you tomorrow for ch 3! I'll think you'll like it ;)

Chapter 3

Notes:

Whoops, little late. Sorry! 💕

Anyways, here is ch3 - things are starting to ramp up! 👀

Levi is awoken to the click of the doorknob and the thump of footsteps down the stairs. He must have finally dozed off, somewhere in the endless loop of numbness and waiting.

Is it morning? Levi can never tell. 

It’s cold down in the dark basement; Levi can hardly feel his fingertips or toes. His legs have that static sensation to them. He fears he has started to smell. 

Levi’s clothes are rumpled along his form. His grimy jeans remain zipped open, his lap a mess of tacky slick and flaking cum. His shirt is stiff from dried sweat and ripe after a few days of wear.

…

Levi feels awful. Humiliation lingers in a stinking cloud around him, saturated with the scent of his and Armin’s satisfaction. The omega’s scent lingers on his skin like a mockery.

Armin descends the creaky wooden stairs, sleepily rubbing his eye, dressed in an old oversized t-shirt and a pair of boxers. His fine, soft hair is mussed up with bed head. He must have just woken up. 

Morning, a part of him reminds him. It’s important to remember that. If he wants to survive down here, he needs every bit of information he can get to escape. Anything to keep track of what’s going on up there. 

Levi’s been missing for at least a day. Someone has to be looking for him by now, right?

Once at the bottom, Armin clicks on the overhead light, and smiles when he sees Levi intently staring at him. Levi warily watches him, eyes fixed upon the omega’s every movement as he walks forward into Levi’s space. With him he brings a fresh wave of his scent. It makes his stomach roll.

“Good morning, Levi.”

The omega saunters up to him and leans down to kiss him softly on the lips. Levi goes to turn away, but flinches when Armin raises his hand up. Instead, Levi grimaces, and figures it’s easier to just let it happen.

Their lips part with a soft smack. Levi would like to wash his mouth out with bleach.

“You don’t have to fight me anymore,” Armin says softly. “There’s no one here watching you. You can be yourself now.”

Is that what Armin thinks this is? That Levi was simply putting on a front for his peers?

Taking a shaky breath, he says, “Armin, I don’t know what you’re thinking there is between us, but I’m not trying to be mean when I say you’ve got it all wrong.”

Armin cocks an eyebrow. “What do you mean? You’ve been so sweet to me. We talk all the time. We’ve fucked.”

He’s serious, Levi realizes, or delusional — but he really thinks we’re in love.

“Armin—” he starts hesitantly, knowing the omega is unpredictable. Is there any reasoning with him? Or will denying his delusions cause him to lash out? Levi decides to at least try. “You’ve taken me. You drugged me. I haven’t done anything of my own free will. None of this is okay. You must realize that.”

“You enjoyed yourself last night,” the omega flippantly rebuffs, seeming unbothered with the reality of his actions.

“I didn’t,” Levi mumbles, voice dropping. He doesn’t want to remember last night. “You drugged me…”

Armin laughs in disbelief. “Oh Levi,” he purrs, leaning into Levi’s space. “Do you really think I believe that? When you were moaning in my ear last night? When you came so deep inside of me it dripped out of me for hours?”

Nausea rolls through him and bile rises in his throat. “No,” he whispers. 

“Yes,” Armin spits. “Don’t act like you weren’t enjoying it when you were balls deep inside of me and moaning like a damn whore.”

The word hurts. It’s not true. He whispers as much.

“Stop fucking lying to me, Levi!” Armin exclaims, voice rising angrily. “You fucking hypocrite! You’re just a stupid alpha, I knew it. You’re just like all the others. You fuck me and love it, then act like I mean nothing to you the next day—” he works himself up, pacing around. “How could you! How many omegas have you fucked and left?”

Confused, Levi shakes his head, desperately trying to soothe the omega before he flies off the handle. 

“Armin, that’s not true, I don’t think that. I just—”

“Stop it!” Armin jams a finger in his face. “Stop calling me a liar!” he screams. “It’s true. You were using me, then. Every time I came in and you flirted with me–? You’re the liar!"

Vehemently, Levi shakes his head. “N-no, that’s not what I meant,” he protests. “I was just doing my job—”

“Do you flirt with every customer that walks through that door?” Armin challenges. He spits out his next word, saturated with venom, “Whore.”

“Stop calling me that.” It’s almost impossible for him to keep his voice steady, but he tries. He doesn’t look Armin in the eye. “I’m not… I’m not a whore.”

“Oh yeah?” Armin says, crossing his arms. “Maybe I did give you some medicine to help you along, but that was just it: an erection. You did all the rest on your own.”

Now Levi can’t talk. His throat has closed up. Tears well on his lash line. He feels like a piece of shit.

“Don’t you see, Levi? If you didn’t like me, you wouldn’t have cum. Simple as that.”

Quietly, Levi sniffles and shakes his head. Armin rolls his eyes. 

“Deny it all you want, it won’t change anything.” He strolls behind Levi, out of sight. “Maybe soon you’ll come to terms with yourself.”

Clattering sounds behind him. 

“Until then, I’m willing to wait for you. I’ll take care of us,” Armin murmurs as he works behind Levi’s back.

“What are you doing?” He calls worriedly, trying to awkwardly crane his neck to look behind him, but it doesn’t work. His voice crackles with tears. 

“Don’t worry, Levi, I’m just getting everything situated for your new home.” Armin’s sing-song voice reassures him from somewhere further in the basement behind him.

Levi’s never even seen what it looks like behind him. Nervousness and fear bleeds into his scent. What more could Armin do to him?

Something like plastic scraping over cement echoes behind him. Then, the sound of pounding water into a container. Levi strains his ears, trying to listen for the sound of Armin’s movement over the noise, half-expecting the omega to jump him from behind.

Movement shuffles behind him as Armin goes about his task behind Levi’s back. A sudden harsh clink of chains snatches Levi’s attention and his anxiety arises once more. His breathing picks up, shallow and quick. He doesn’t know why it’s like that. He doesn’t know why he’s scared. Soft fingertips suddenly brushing against his nape make Levi jolt so hard, the chair rattles, squeaking against the floor. 

“Shh,” Armin soothes him, stroking his fingertips over Levi’s skin. His scent envelopes him, gentle and omega, warm with the dregs of sleep, but Levi’s form just can’t seem to relax. 

Those gentle fingers attempt to massage the tension away, digging in at the tight tendons and working them out. The gesture would have been comforting in any other situation, but it just makes Levi shiver and cringe away as best he can. He doesn’t want anything from Armin and that includes his touch. 

“I guess I shouldn't be angry with you. You’re still adjusting,” Armin hums thoughtfully, petting over him like he was a cat.

Armin takes the moment of thought to loop something over his head and around his neck. Tiny pinpricks of metal poke into the soft skin of his neck in a circle. Immediately, it’s uncomfortable, and Levi freezes, afraid of jerking the chain and tightening it. Humming softly, Armin loops the ends of the metal together behind the base of his skull and clips it into place. The metal contraption hangs heavy at Levi’s throat, threatening pricks pressing into his skin.

A prong collar.

“There we go.” Armin nods satisfied. He hooks a finger into the loop of metal at the end, tugging it experimentally. Levi’s head follows the pressure, arching back to keep the prongs out of his skin. He looks up at the omega nervously, afraid of talking and piercing himself. Armin pats his cheek lovingly. “It’s just for precaution, Levi. Don’t worry. Don’t pull and it won’t hurt.”

Continuing to hum, the omega bends down and gathers a chain from the floor. It scrapes across the concrete, making prickles rise on Levi's skin. Neatly, Armin clips it on to the collar, then walks back into Levi's line of sight to rummage through the grocery bag from the night before. The weight of the chain pulls uncomfortably at Levi’s neck, cinching the collar tighter around his trachea. Breathing too deeply makes the sharp metal worry into his skin. Wordlessly, Levi watches, fear crushing his chest, as Armin goes through his bag, oblivious to Levi's distress.

“Aha!” Armin calls triumphantly, pulling a package out. A padlock — the kind opened with a key. Levi swallows nervously, then winces at the prick it gives him.

Armin pays him no mind as he comes back to his side. Soon, a sharp snick sounds right by Levi’s ears and he knows that Armin’s secured him in place, nice and tight. Armin tosses the matching key back into the plastic bag, unbothered, before turning his attention to Levi’s many ropes. 

With expert fingers, Armin undoes all of the knots and cinches with ease. It’s almost insulting when Levi remembers how he’s tugged and pulled at those very knots the day before. Soon, the constricting binds fall away. Levi would have almost been able to breathe freely, had it not been for the cruel reminder of the metal ring at his throat.

“There we go,” Armin says brightly, coming back in front of Levi. “Let’s get you up and moved into your new home!”

Armin hooks his arms underneath Levi's and heaves him up with surprising strength. Levi guesses it makes sense, given the omega was a nursing student and probably had to practice lifting dead weight from hospital beds all the time. He’s especially thankful for it now. Levi’s heavier than he looks, and sags limply in the omega’s arms, legs too numb and asleep to even respond to his brain. His arms are beyond useless, still handcuffed behind his back.

With a soft grunt, Armin lifts him up, stopping to lean Levi’s smaller frame against one shoulder to raise Levi’s bound hands up enough to clear the back of the chair. From there, he shuffles them over to the dark area behind them. Levi’s head lolls as he tries to look where they’re going.

His chain snakes across the ground and creeps up the wall to a sturdy looking metal plate bolted into the concrete. The sight of it catches his breath in his throat. A tether. For him. 

Like he was some mangy mutt staked in place. The thought cinches like the prong collar around his heart.

Not at all gentle, Armin dumps him to the cold stone floor next to a bucket filled with water. Levi grunts as he hits the ground with a heavy thud, shoulder complaining as it’s forced to catch all his weight. On a little folded washcloth, a plain bar of soap waits for him. Within reach of the chain is a small divot in the ground where a drain sits.

“Now, those clothes.”

Suddenly, Levi feels cold all over. He shakes his head warily. Fear of this outweighs the collar. “No,” he croaks.

Armin’s frown is ugly. It makes Levi shudder. “Levi. They need to be washed.”

It’s true. The words make him hesitate, and before he can agree, Armin’s hands are already on him, tugging down his pants. Though Levi’s breath picks up and his veins grow cold with a disgusting feeling, he lets it happen. Clean. He wants to be clean. 

Armin is clinical about undressing him this time. He strips Levi of his boots, socks, jeans, then underwear, leaving the alpha naked from the waist down. For some odd reason, Levi’s legs curl in on himself, like there’s still something left to hide.

“Hmm.” Armin squints at the last piece: Levi’s shirt. “Do you like that?”

Levi gapes at him, taken aback. It’s a work shirt with the company logo on it. It’s nothing special. 

“N-not really.”

“Perfect!”

Armin is happy again. Levi lets out a small breath of relief. It’s safer if he stays on Armin’s good side. Maybe that will help him escape later, if he can convince Armin to let him go, or drop his guard long enough for him to attack.

The omega leaps up and goes to the tool bench, rifling around the mess for a second before turning around, a box cutter in his hand. Levi cowers slightly at the sight of the sharp blade. As usual, Armin pays his reaction no mind. The omega kneels before him, taking hold of Levi’s chain to secure him in place — the collar pinching slightly in reminder — and hooks the tip of the razor at the collar of Levi’s shirt. 

The alpha’s breaths come in short, stilted gasps and he eyes the hand holding the box cutter warily. In one smooth motion, Armin tears through the cheap cotton like tissue paper, exposing Levi’s chest. 

There’s a distantly proud look in Armin’s eyes as he admires the blade’s work. His face is softer with memory, almost human. 

“My grandpa’s tools,” Armin announces off-handedly, raising the blade in the air and waggling it. “Take good care of them, and they’ll take care of you.”

Levi says nothing in response.

“He always kept things going. I’m lucky he was so handy.”

The question bubbles in Levi's throat until he can’t contain it anymore. “How so?”

Armin seems to shake himself out of his stupor, blinking a few times before looking into Levi’s eyes, his unhinged smile returning. “I already had everything I needed for you. It was like this was meant to be.”

Wordlessly, Levi stares at him. Part of him is strangely scared, like he’s being chased in a dream and can’t get any further away than he is now. Like something foreboding lingers on the horizon. A lurking threat he can’t see just yet.

Returning to his task, Armin shreds the last of Levi’s shirt from his body, effectively leaving the alpha completely naked and on display. The omega pauses to admire him for a moment. Then, he strikes.

Using a firm hand, he pins Levi on his back, stroking a hand down the alpha’s toned abdomen. Levi hisses as his arms are pinched uncomfortably beneath him, but his mind finds it hard to protest. His body alights like wildfire at the gentle touch of the omega. All his nerves and cells rejoice at the omega’s wandering hands. There must still be drugs in his system, because why on earth is he getting excited?

Fingertips brush just above his cock, trailing sweetly across his groin. Sweat bead at Levi’s brow and he finds it hard to inhale, staring detached at the wood ceiling above. Something in his brain is screaming incoherently. Somewhere else — a small, festering pustule inside of him — is begging Armin’s touch to go lower.

Giving Levi a single gentle stroke, Armin’s touch trails down and cups between his legs, fondling his balls. Levi inhales sharply, blinking at the prick at his throat. One leg hikes up unsteadily, weak and static-y. Almost immediately, it’s nudged back down by Armin. Obediently, Levi lets his thighs fall the rest of the way open, granting full access to the omega.

Armin sighs heavily, massaging and playing with the two plump testicles in his hand. “These are so nice — and so heavy. It’s a shame I can’t have some fun with you before I go to class.” He leans down, wetly kissing the inside of one of Levi’s inner thighs. His cock twitches, stiffening slightly against his belly. It aches with the distant memory of soft, wet heat. Wouldn’t he love it if Armin touched him again—

Nearly giving him whiplash, Armin stands up, the moment lost. His cock pouts at the rejection.

“Well, here you are!” Armin smiles down at him, hands on his hips, looking proud of himself. “I’ll be gone most of today, but don’t miss me too much,” he teases, eyeing Levi’s neglected cock. “I’ll be home before you know it — and I’ll have a nice treat to make it up to you.”

Bewildered, Levi sits up, muscles stiff from his immobility for so long. Incredulously, he looks up at Armin from the floor.

“You’re– you’re leaving me?” 

He isn’t sure why he asks it. Right now, he should be jumping for joy that Armin’s leaving him alone, but also, being alone in the intimidating, dark, creepy basement has started to wear on him. It’s terrifying down here and despite the way Armin’s presence is so unnerving, Levi craves another human body down here with him; something to ground him against what nightmares Levi's mind convinces him lurk in the dark. Armin's cheery smile falters some and he actually looks guilty. 

Armin makes a sympathetic face and bends down to Levi’s level, brushing his knuckles over Levi’s cheek. “I still need to go to class, baby. And then I have clinical hours to attend.”

For all of two seconds, Levi tolerates the touch, but then, common sense — or perhaps anger — kicks in, and he snaps his teeth over Armin’s hand. 

With a startled shriek, Armin rips his hand back, but before Levi can charge him and use the surprise to his advantage, the omega snatches his chain with his other hand and pulls. Hands bound, Levi is unable to do anything as his trachea is abruptly closed off. Metal prongs dig into his skin and warm blood wells where they pierce through. 

Fury simmers in Armin’s baby blue eyes. 

“Don’t fucking bite me, Levi. Or I’m going to make you regret it.”

The warning chills him to the bone. In his heart, Levi knows Armin means it. Gurgling, Levi thrashes under Armin’s hold, unable to breath or fight back. He is completely at the omega’s mercy, he realizes. Desperately, he pleads with his eyes, neck on fire and his lungs screaming. 

“Do I make myself clear?”

Armin’s voice is chilling, expressing hardly any remorse as the alpha writhes under the stress of the collar. Head wrenched at an awkward angle, Levi frantically nods to the best of his ability, and has to hope the message gets across to the omega. Armin watches him squirm for a bit longer, watching with detached fascination as Levi’s skin grows ruddy, then purple with the lack of oxygen, before abruptly dropping the chain. 

Immediately, Levi gasps, sucking in a deep breath of cold, dank air. His body curls in on itself, trying to shield himself away from the omega. His throat burns with dozens of shallow wounds and his lungs sting as he continues to choke air down. 

Unceremoniously, the cuffs rattle, then open and slide from Levi’s wrists, relieving his abused, raw skin of their bite. Levi barely reacts. 

“I’ll be back to feed you dinner, until then, behave!”

With one last sunny smile, Armin stands and neatens up the area — tucking the chair in place at the workbench and gathering up his bag and Levi’s clothes — before making his way up the stairs. Levi’s thankful he left the light on for him this time. 

 

---

 

Eventually after Armin departs for class, Levi is able to catch his breath, and manages to blink until the world seems real again. 

His hands are free and he’s no longer bound to a chair. Now he’s chained to the wall. One cage for another. At least Levi can now stand up and walk around, somewhat, as well as use his hands. 

First thing Levi does is scoop mouthful after mouthful from the bucket of water, gasping in relief. Then, he relieves himself into the drain. Next, he tackles the task of cleaning himself. Dipping the rag in the bucket, he lathers the bar in the cloth, then gets to work scrubbing himself. He does his best to not get soap in the water, not knowing when Armin will be back. This is his only source of drinking water at the moment. 

Lather, scrub, rinse, repeat. 

Levi does it twice, but still feels a grimy film over his skin, specifically at his groin. Rinsing again, he takes the washcloth and scrubs viciously at his crotch, trying to rake away the phantom feeling of slick muscle wrapped around him. It doesn't work. 

Levi swears he can still smell the tacky, stale scent of long-dried slick on himself. It sticks to the roof of his mouth like bad gum, dissolving in gagging strands and slipping down his throat. 

Without warning, Levi scrambles over to the drain and heaves, purging the memory into it. Most of it just looks like yellow bile. His form trembles with heavy droplets of freezing cold, soapy water. Or maybe it’s cold sweat. Levi doesn’t know. It all mixes together in a slippery film on him like a second skin. The tiny wounds all around his neck throb with each thudding pulse of his heart. Shakily, Levi exhales, eyes slipping closed.

He should probably wash again. 

 

---

 

Nervously, Levi’s eyes dart back to the dark ascent of stairs, then back to the toolbox. Shivers wrack his frame as he hugs himself. He’s been curled up, knees to chest, for a good hour at least, severely regretting his wash now. It’s perpetually cold down here in the basement and the concrete floor seeps what little body heat he can generate right out of him. Like a vampire, it steals away every ounce of warmth, leaving him cold as a corpse. 

Armin said he won’t be home until dinner. Levi has until then to try to find a way out. Already, every option he’s tried has led to a dead end. Now, he busies himself with stamping feeling back into his legs while he brainstorms. His fingers and toes are growing pale and a bit sluggish when reacting to his wiggling.

Teeth chattering, he tries to think through the unbearably chill, brain constantly flipping back to: cold, cold, cold. 

The chain gives him a good five feet of tether line. It allows him a little semi-circle, but stops just before anything useful. Levi would expect no less. Armin is smart. Almost creepily so. Distantly, Levi wonders how long he planned this. Everything seems meticulously laid out to a tee. 

This was not a rashly done job. The omega planned this. He made sure every detail was right. 

Sharply, Levi tries to blow hot air onto his hands. Raw, bloody lines circle his wrists. Levi tries not to look at them. 

He could try to lay down and attempt to stretch to reach one tool bag on the ground, but height and arm span are not on Levi’s side. Thinking, his eyes slide to the other side, taking in his options. 

He could scream again, but no, that didn’t work the first time. He almost lost his voice doing that. What if someone came looking for him and knocked on the door? He’d need them to hear him. If his voice is gone, he risks them walking away, oblivious to him below their feet.

Besides, he really doubts Armin would leave him ungagged if he was truly worried about neighbors hearing Levi. 

Idly, Levi reaches up behind his head and fingers the heavy lock. Maybe he could pick it or bust it open. That would require him to have a tool to do so. His eyes flicker back to the workbench. All that equipment scattered about is like a cruel taunt. If only he could reach it. 

Following the chain up, he rubs his fingers over the grooves of the metal plate attached to the wall. Pulling it out of the concrete it’s embedded in is not an option, but maybe he could chip away at the metal links…

Experimentally, Levi tugs on the chain, muscles straining. It doesn’t budge. Undeterred, Levi spins in place and plants his feet against the wall, and uses it as leverage to put his whole strength into pulling. His grip starts to hurt as the metal digs into his skin and his arms shake with the intensity. Too soon, Levi is forced to stop, gasping from exertion. The chain hasn’t budged. 

Fuck. 

Breath going ragged, Levi shoves two hands behind his head and tries to rip the lock off next. His frozen fingers slip over the smooth metal, but he’s determined. He gets a finger hooked beneath the loop, grips the bulky block with the other, and grunts again as he tries to pull it apart. 

After a few seconds, his fingers slip from the block and accidentally rips the collar backwards, successfully managing to choke himself by surprise. He falls to the floor, chains clattering noisily as he wheezes against the stained concrete. Coughing weakly, he grabs for his throat, rubbing it to chase the pain away. No doubt, it’s bruised from both Armin’s earlier use and from the stunt he just pulled.

Hopeless descended upon him like a heavy blanket. It smothers out any optimism he harbored for getting free. A sob threatens to tear from his throat. No. Levi tightens his jaw and takes a deep breath through his nose, forcing himself to calm down. He just has to be smart about it and he’ll find a way out. If he can’t keep a clear head, he’s doomed. Panicking is the worst thing to do right now. 

Giving himself a few moments, he calms himself. Three breaths, he tells himself. Three deep breaths, then you get up, and try again. 

Closing his eyes, he takes in one, deep, long breath. His collar pinches. Counting by thousands, Levi lets it go slowly. 

Toolbox. On the left. There’s a bag on the floor next to the bench. 

Levi inhales again. Pausing, he holds it for a few heart beats, then lets it go. 

The adjustable strap might be in reach. He’ll have to try. He’ll lay down and scoot until the chain gives him no more, and then he’ll reach. 

Taking his third breath, he lets it out, then opens his eyes. 

He’s ready.

Notes:

to be continued... 😈

Chapter 4

Notes:

Hello! Sorry for missing yesterday, I had a personal issue arise. To make up for it - double upload today! I will give you both chapter 4 and 5 :) 💜

Levi’s teeth chatter as he stretches out over the stone floor. Straining, he reaches an arm out, fingertips dancing in the air as he reaches out for the bag. It’s almost laughable, the distance between him and it. Huffing, Levi drops his hand and looks at the gap between him and freedom, gauging his height next to it. Next, he tries laying down, trying to ward off a shiver as his bare cock plays across the ground, and shuffles backwards, kicking a leg out to reach with his toes. That gets him closer, but he’s still just a bit too far.

Fuck!

Propping himself up on his elbows, he glances behind him, then looks at the taut chain leading back to the wall. Mentally, he curses himself. A little bit of pain now for the possibility of freedom. Small price to pay. 

Stealing himself, he looks one last time for where he’s aiming and takes a deep breath, scooting as far back as the chain will allow before it cinches, growing uncomfortable. Blindly, he sticks his foot out and feels for the bag strap. The tips of his toes brush against the strap. A flicker of hope springs in his chest. Yes! Grunting, he tries to spread his toes and grip it, fumbling blindly, but he can barely close his big toe and second toe around it. It keeps slipping off. There’s not enough grip. 

Finally, he’s forced to give up, retreating back into the semi-circle to cut slack on his windpipe. He gasps a few deep breaths in, sucks in one last time, and tries again. He tries blindly kicking out both feet, but even then, the bag strap scoots just out of reach as his toes nudge against it. 

He surges back once again, “Shit!”

Angrily, he bangs on the floor with his fist, panting. “Fuck! Shit!”

Allows himself a few moments to curse and get his anger out. If he goes into this angry, he could accidentally do something that pushes the bag further away. Calm. He needs to be calm. 

Blowing a breath out slowly, he pauses, getting an idea. That’s it!

Relax — he needs to relax. Breathe out and let himself extend. 

Excitement and hope picking up inside of him, he tries one more time. This time, he releases all the air he can bear, stretching out as far as he can, and lets his head drop in line with his spine, and pulls backwards. The metal digs in his throat like the maw of a monster, but he doesn’t let up. He leans against the tether so deeply, his neck cracks a bit. Lack of oxygen makes his face go puffy and hot, but he searches, foot brushing desperately. 

Finally—!

His toes dip beneath the strap, and slide it up over the arch of his foot to catch on his ankle. He’s got it. 

Spots have started to dance behind his eyes, body heaving for air, so he rocks forward, choking.

Flopping to the floor, he coughs violently, throat spasming. It feels like he won’t ever recover enough to get a deep breath in again, but eventually, he’s able to blink the darkness from the corner of his eyes and shakily sit up. 

When he looks down, he grins weakly. The bag strap is still around his ankle. 

Inching his leg up, he drags the tool bag over the floor. It’s far heavier than he thought, but he yanks it towards himself until he can grab it by the hands and pull it close. His hands vibrate with adrenaline. He’s got it! He’s getting out of here!

Heart thundering, Levi unzips it and starts rifling through his options. A huge smile — the first one he’s felt in days — spreads over his face. There’re wire cutters, pliers, screw drivers, and even an old-timey looking box of nails. 

Yes!

Levi scampers back to the plate on the wall, bag in hand. Immediately he gets to work with the wire cutters, placing the teeth over one of the loops. With all his might he squeezes, trying to cut through. The two sharp pieces of metal close on the steel loop and grind. Levi grits his teeth and uses both hands to apply pressure. They don’t budge. 

After a few moments, he releases them, panting. The steel barely has a shallow scratch on it. Levi tries to not let it discourage him too much. He just has to keep trying. Replacing them, he tries again. 

Then again. 

Again.

Once again, Levi drops them, giving his arms a break. A sheen of sweat has started to pick up over his body. Fuck, this was impossible. There’s barely a groove in the defiant metal. On the other hand, the wire cutters are looking a little… wobbly. The sharp line of the teeth isn’t as straight as it once was, like they would give before Levi’s chains would. 

The alpha gives a muted laugh of disbelief, thinking of the omega’s words earlier. ‘Take good care of them, and they’ll take care of you.’

What a joke. He thinks bitterly. He curses Armin’s grandfather’s name, damning the man for even contributing to bringing an evil creature like his grandson into existence. Plus, his shitty tools!

Angrily, Levi tosses the tool back into the bag and rifles again. He snatches the screw driver and starts to jam it through one of the links before he freezes. 

He could smack himself.

Diving back into the tool bag, he grabs the wire cutters again and unceremoniously holds them to the prong collar. A bit nervous at accidentally slicing open his own throat doing this, he does his best to hook his fingers beneath the much smaller links and hold them away from his skin. He can only get it so far before the padlock at the back catches, but it’s enough. Wiggling the teeth between his skin and one of the loops, he carefully goes about pumping the handles. 

The metal of the collar is much softer, and with time, and gentle, rhythmic pressure, he feels like maybe he’s starting to make progress. Working quietly, he listens for any indication that the metal loop might be giving. All he hears is the grinding and clacking of the tool as he works it. After a while of going at it, he feels around the loop he was working at for any progress. It feels like there’s a small dent starting to form on the outside. Not much, but far more than what he was getting with the chain. Replacing the teeth, he continues to work.

As more and more time passes, he starts to sweat, nerves building. How long has it been since Armin left this morning? Has it been a few hours? How much longer will he have? Armin mentioned being home to give him dinner. That should at least be evening. 

Time is so hard to tell down here. Levi fears he’s not making enough progress quick enough. Anxiety makes every limb shake and causes his hold on the handles to slip. Cursing under his breath, Levi swipes his palms along his hips, trying to dry his hands. 

Nervously, he looks up to the stairs, jostling his collar. It pricks and pokes, but doesn’t give. He switches tactics, shuffling the cutters a bit and worries them harder. Nothing happens. Next, he opts to twist and yank them. Occasionally, they slip off the slick metal with sharp snaps, and the motion digs the blunt tips of the prongs into his already abused skin from the other side. Closing his eyes, Levi powers through it. Endure. Because he has to. 

Hot tears slip down his face when a particularly unpleasant movement makes the stab of metal go directly into an open wound. He shouts in pain and is forced to stop. He claps a hand over the throbbing cut. His fingers come away slippery and hot. Shit. 

Just then, the floorboards above him creak. Fearfully, Levi’s head jerks up towards the sound, heart thudding, and he scrambles to stuff the tools back in the bag. His fingers tremble as he tries to zip the bag shut, the blood on his fingertips doing him no extra favors.

The footsteps come closer. 

Levi rushes to the end of his tether, palms slapping on the basement floor as he splays out on his stomach to use his legs to push the bag back into place. Glancing behind himself to the stairs, he considers something. Should he leave the bag closer so it’s easier to grab in the future? Will Armin notice its placement is off?

Levi looks back to it, pulse roaring in his ears. Armin’s already unstable. How would he react to the discovery that Levi’s trying to escape? He nudges it back a bit.

Time is not a luxury for him anymore. Before he can truly decide, the door opens somewhere in the darkness. Abandoning the bag in its place, Levi scuttles back to the wall, wincing as his chain clinks noisily, giving him away. The footsteps pause on the steps, listening. Levi’s heart races. 

The stone wall is freezing against his back, but his forehead probably shines with nervous perspiration. Armin thunks down the last few steps, coming into full view. Suspicion shines on his face. The omega carefully looks around the room once he’s at the bottom, blue eyes surveying his surroundings. They land on Levi, then narrow. 

“Busy?” He questions softly, walking forward slowly. Levi’s heart pounds in his chest like it might burst through his ribcage. His limbs feel weak with paralyzing fear.

Unconvincingly, Levi shakes his head. Underneath the omega’s scrutinizing gaze, he feels strangely guilty, and watches the omega approach though nervous eyes. Armin’s eyes slowly rove up and down his cowering form. Without a word, he turns back to the entryway, keeping his eyes on Levi the entire time, and grabs a long, black rod that was propped up against the wall. Levi hadn’t noticed it at first, thinking it was just more abandoned junk. One end of it looks like the prongs of an electrical plug. 

The similarity has him swallowing harshly. 

Armin comes back in front of him, stopping just outside the reach of the tether, and cocks his head. 

“You’ve hurt yourself,” he states plainly. His eyes train on Levi’s throat, where one side is slick with drying blood. 

“It’s fine,” Levi whispers. His eyes are round and trained directly on Armin. Warily, he looks down at the rod in his hands. “What is that?”

Armin doesn’t answer him, starting to pace around the semi-circle of the tether’s reach. Almost immediately, his eyes are drawn to the disturbed tool bag, and Levi wants to kick himself. It has so obviously been messed with. There’s no hope of lying. 

Feet coming to a stop by it, Armin looks over at him, looking furious. 

“You were trying to escape?”

Even weaker than before, Levi tries to deny it, but his face must have gone pale, because Armin doesn’t believe him for a second. 

Anger mars his sweet, boyish features. It seeps into his scent like a match catching flame, harsh, bitter, and acidic. It burns the back of Levi’s throat. 

The omega storms up to him, ignoring every one of the alpha’s attempts to placate him. 

He flicks something on the rod and electricity whirs. That’s the split-second of warning that Levi gets before the metal prongs are jabbed into his skin and all he knows is agony. Screaming, Levi topples to the floor, limbs spasming as his muscles are forced to contract over and over again. 

Armin yanks the prod away, chest heaving with utter fury. Levi writhes like an insect larva.

“I’ve given you nothing but love, and you tried to escape?!”

Mouth agape, Levi tries to babble pleas with Armin, but the omega continues his punishment. Jabbing him once again, Armin ignites Levi’s ribs with debilitating lighting. He screams at him the whole time. Levi barely hears it over the blinding, white-hot agony coursing through him.

“Don’t you ever leave me!” Armin yells, yanking the prongs back after a long pause. Levi moans with pain and twitches with the aftershocks. “I love you, you can’t leave me. You’re not allowed to leave.” A growl coats the last few words and Levi nods along to whatever he says, just hoping to make the torture stop. 

It doesn’t.

Again and again, Armin brings Levi’s world to a pinpoint of pain, and nothing but pain. It’s hard to remember that there’s anything outside of the crackling lightning that spreads over his muscles any time Armin jabs him. 

Levi whimpers and yelps as it keeps coming, over and over again. He’s not even sure if the words he’s saying are gibberish or not, but he begs Armin to stop, screaming for mercy. 

Finally, when Armin pulls it back, he doesn’t immediately jam it back. Little spots of twin red dots litter all over Levi’s heaving body. The alpha stares off at nothing, eyes bleary with pain, muscles still twitching minutely. His chest heaves laboriously with each breath, the sound echoes through the basement. 

Armin’s breathing hard too, but more from ferocious anger than exertion like Levi. He scowls down at the alpha’s pitiful form, unmoved by Levi’s misery. Whispering pleas, Levi reaches out a shaky hand for the omega. 

“Please,” he cries, voice quivering. “I’m sorry. Please—”

Sadistically, Armin jams the cattle prod between Levi's shut legs one last time to shock the alpha’s sensitive inner thighs, making the alpha squirm and howl, limbs flailing. Not once does Armin look away as Levi writhes beneath him.

 

---

 

Not long after, Armin returns, thunking back down the steps, Levi’s dinner in hand. The alpha has been lashed to the chair again, his wrists and ankles done up tight. He doesn’t look up when the omega walks closer.

Phantom bursts of electricity still course underneath his skin. Every part of him aches and he feels strangely tired. Nonchalantly, Armin kneels down in front of him, a paper plate full of rice and chicken in his hand. He pays no mind to the way the alpha ignores him, gathering a spoonful of rice on a plastic utensil. Expectantly, he holds it out to Levi, waiting. 

He doesn’t need to say a word. Obediently, Levi opens his mouth, and Armin slips the spoon inside. They go like this for a while. Armin watches him chew, cold blue eyes impassively studying him, while Levi looks at the bland floor, and swallows his bland food without complaint.

It has been a while since he last ate, so he must be hungry, but Levi doesn’t feel it. Regardless, he knows Armin expects him to eat, so he does. He doesn’t have the mental strength to fight against his captor anymore tonight. He doesn't think he could stand more abuse at the hands of the omega. 

Finally, after countless spoonful's, and robotic swallows, Levi closes his lips and looks away the next time he’s offered a spoonful. Armin doesn’t push him and simply gets up and deposits the plate behind him on the steps. The omega returns, a soft hand cupping his jaw, and turns his head back to face him. With sweet, gentle lips, he kisses Levi on the forehead. 

“I don’t like punishing you, Levi,” the omega states. There’s no apology in his words. 

Levi says nothing. He stares at the omega’s chest instead. It doesn't bother Armin, as the omega continues on, saying, “But I don’t want to catch you doing stuff like that anymore, do you understand me? I know you’re not used to your new life yet, but that’s not acceptable. Why would you ever try to leave?”

The question is a rhetorical one. 

A hand cups Levi’s cheek, so warm against the cold of the basement. Hatred blooms within him — this time directed towards himself — as he finds himself leaning into it. Armin thumbs across his cheek soothingly. 

“I’m going to get my kit. We’ll clean up those cuts of yours and you’ll be good as new.”

Levi nods faintly.

While the omega swabs alcohol pads over the ring of tiny blood-crusted bruises, Levi allows his mind to wander. 

How is he ever going to get out of here? Armin has no qualms with violence and Levi no longer has tools within reach — Armin had made a point to throw the bag further into the darkness while Levi had been lying in a crumpled heap after the cattle prod incident.

Either he was going to have to find another way out or wait for someone to find him. 

Given roughly two days have already passed since Levi’s abduction — or Levi thinks it’s been two days — he has less and less hope that he’ll be stumbled across. Faintly, Levi remembered hearing a statistic that the first 72 hours were the most important in bringing home a missing person. After that, it got significantly harder to track someone down.

His time was running out.

 

---

 

Armin finishes neatly doctoring up all of Levi’s scrapes and bruises. Even his electrical burns are swabbed over with disinfectant and dabbed with ointment. 

The omega sits back on his thighs to admire his handiwork. His eyes rove up every inch of Levi’s bare skin, something glittering behind his irises. They linger on the angry prong marks marring Levi’s inner thigh. Leaning forward, he presses a loving, apologetic kiss to the inflamed burn. His slim fingers stroke over Levi’s knee cap.

Levi jumps, flushing. The ropes strain with his movements. 

Slyly, Armin looks up at him from between his legs, and kisses his inner thigh again, higher. Levi peers down at him warily. Lips press up near the crease of his leg, closer to his groin. Armin has wrapped his fingers over the tops of Levi’s thighs to steady himself, tracing a line with his mouth up the alpha’s legs to his navel, where he nips sloppily at Levi’s skin.

Levi’s breath has gone raspy. Something stirs below his navel, tugging lower in his gut. It’s a disgusting feeling.

“Please stop.” His voice is so tiny, even Levi can barely hear it.

Armin pulls back just long enough to whisper, “It’s been a long day, time for your treat, Alpha.”

In the next movement, he laps Levi’s cock into his mouth, sucking and bobbing on it. The omega’s tongue plays with his shaft, rolling it around in the impossible heat of his mouth, and deliciously tonguing at the underside. It grows harder under the omega’s administrations, descending into a proper full-on, sloppy blow job. Levi’s blinks sluggishly, brain foggy with arousal. Slowly, his head tilts back against the chair, trying to hold in his moans, desperately torn between trying to buck up into the omega’s mouth and keeps his hips still. Armin gives great head. He lets Levi in deep with little resistance and can stay down for a while before needing to gag. His mouth slides around Levi, so, so wet. Saliva drips down the shaft and over Levi’s balls. 

It’s… it’s so good. Once again, Levi finds him enjoying himself. 

The omega sucks him off diligently, swallowing every drop of Levi’s cum as it comes. Levi crumples into tears after his orgasm, hating that he responds so well to Armin’s advances and hating that he enjoyed it so much. His knot throbs just out of reach of the omega’s mouth.

Arming misinterprets his tears and smiles brightly at him, leaning up to kiss his cheek. “That good, huh?”

Notes:

Chapter 5 will be posted in a few hours! 😌

Hehehe 😈

Chapter 5

Notes:

As promised, here is your second chapter! 😌💕 Thank you so much to those who have commented and kudos'ed. I've unfortunately been really busy irl, but I plan on answering all of your comments soon. I'm glad people are enjoying this fic, as it has been a labor of love that I've worked on for months.

CW: heavy physical abuse/torture in this one

The Levi whump is whumping - be safe in your decisions <3

Thanks for reading 💜

Days pass. Any hope at being found slowly slips away. The time passes monotonously. Seconds turn to minutes that turn to hours, and before he knows it, those hours start to blur together into indecipherable days. Levi feels that he is slowly going insane. For hours he lays on the cold floor, simply counting the stacks of boxes surrounding him or the support beams of the ceiling, until Armin comes down and talks to him again. Or he’ll wear an invisible tread into the concrete from his pacing when he has the energy to spare, which isn’t often. Anything to keep himself occupied in the dragging, never-ending hours.

He imagines fake scenarios where the FBI comes crashing through the ceiling, sweeping him off his feet and into a patrol car. He pictures Armin becoming so overcome with guilt that he willingly releases Levi’s bonds. He dreams of a hot shower and a warm bed. Good tea and a full belly.

Armin never gave him his clothes back. Levi isn’t sure why he thought he would. Guess he should have expected that. 

It does make the nights that much harder, spent shivering on the freezing floor, teeth chattering.

Sometimes, Armin only comes down to check on him for a few minutes. Long enough to feed him a small meal, check his chain is secure (Armin had given him another pop across the head when he saw the damage Levi had done), and fill his water bucket back up. The omega stays busy with school. Most of the time, Levi doesn’t see him when he’s home. He hears him though.

He listens as the omega’s footsteps map out his routine on Levi’s ceiling. 

The front of the house is to his right. He’s starting to suspect Armin’s bedroom is just above him towards the left slightly. The water pipes gurgle and groan anytime the omega showers or flushes. Like the house was alive, and Levi was at its belly, slowly being digested.

When Armin does come down for longer periods of time, Levi suspects it is the weekend. During those hours, Armin sometimes has sex with him. With so little food and exercise, Levi has found himself growing weaker, more susceptible to Armin’s demanding hands. It helps the omega that he always has the prod on hand. One flash of it, and Levi’s usually cowering underneath him, letting the omega do as he pleases. 

There was one time when Levi did try to be brave and refuse Armin — just the night before — and the omega jammed the cattle prod into his nape and held it there. Those screams still echo through the basement. Perhaps not audibly, but Levi is haunted by the shadows and how much they’ve seen. At the memory, Levi finds himself trembling, like there’s still voltage contorting his muscles.

It’s not all bad. Sometimes, Armin just wants to touch him. He’ll stroke Levi’s cock for him, eyes trained with fascination on how Levi’s cock head peeks out from between his fingers. Or he’ll pet every inch of Levi’s body and tweak his nipples. Other times, he rides Levi until they’re both panting and satisfied.

More often than not though, Levi’s skin is crawling by the time Armin leaves, and he washes robotically with the bucket of cold water. No matter how often he does it, or how hard he scrubs, he never truly feels clean. 

It’s a harsh cycle. 

As of right now, Levi does what he does every day: sit and wait. Idly, he twists his fingers through the single damaged loop in his prong collar, worrying and pulling where the little groove is. He’s less afraid of the collar now that he’s used to it. Morbid fascination has replaced his fear. He’s only scared when Armin touches the collar.

When he’s really bored, he’ll fidget with the loop at the back, cinching and releasing the collar over his throat rhythmically. When the little nubs of metal dig into the bruises, it feels… strangely good. Therapeutic. Cinch it tight, feel his throat constrict, count to ten, let it go. Slowly, he’ll build up, holding it longer and longer. 

The rush and floaty high he sometimes gets from it gives him something to do. It makes him feel good. A single rush of happiness in the unending cold. It’s euphoria he makes all on his own. He doesn’t need his cock or Armin to get it. It’s all his. 

It’s during one such time when Levi’s pulling the chain taut, mind clear, body calm, when Armin unlocks the basement door. Forced to cut his session short, Levi lets the collar go and sucks in a breath of air. Opening his eyes, he settles into his usual position of knees to chest and watches Armin enter.

The omega raises his brows slightly when he sees Levi like he knows exactly what he was up to. He can never seem to hide anything from him. Sighing, Armin places a plate of food on the workbench and goes over to the alpha, squatting near him. Levi doesn’t meet his eyes. Using two firm fingers, he props Levi’s chin up, angling the alpha’s head from side to side to look at the ring of dotted bruises. He sucks on his teeth. 

“Those are never gonna heal if you keep doing that.”

Levi doesn’t say anything. That’s his new thing as of late. The omega doesn’t listen to him anyways. Oftentimes, he gets downright mean if Levi does respond. So far, Armin hasn’t forced him to talk. He carries on whole conversations with himself without a single input from Levi. It’s easier this way.

“I guess I haven’t been giving you as much attention as I should,” Armin calls over his shoulder as he rises and retrieves Levi’s dinner. “I’m sorry, baby. I’ve just been so busy.”

Armin chatters idly to him while feeding Levi his meal. He never lets Levi hold the spoon himself.

Levi wonders if it’s part of his delusion of ‘taking care of him’ or if Armin is genuinely concerned with his own safety.

Either way, Levi robotically eats what he’s given, and pretends to listen while Armin blabbers on. It’s nostalgically similar to the way Levi used to ignore him while Armin pestered him at work. Levi almost misses the simpler days.

“— and then I almost missed the deadline of that other assignment, which would have knocked me down a whole letter grade, but I did it and that’s the important thing. A sixty is better than a zero.”

Levi swallows his bite of roasted vegetables. They’re a bit bland, but god, at least they have salt on them. He’ll take what he can get. The food he gets isn’t much, but most of it is bland, blasé, basic staples. Chicken, rice, broth, bread — maybe a side of greens if he’s lucky. Tonight must be important if Armin’s feeding him variety.

“... so then the bulk of the operation was done without a supervisor present or permission from the owner, which of course was against regulation…”

He’s offered another bite, this one of brown rice. He accepts it quietly.

“—which is actually quite sad. A lot more people showed up than I thought. I guess your co-workers told everyone that came through that they were doing it. Shame it was cut off early.”

The word coworkers snags Levi’s wandering attention.

Finally, he tunes in, chewing slower.

“That Petra girl really seemed to like you.” Armin’s words are clipped, almost accusatory. “Crying for attention in front of everyone and going on and on about just how sweet you were.”

Levi swallows his half-chewed food.

“Petra?”

Armin glares at him.

“Oh, now you want to talk? Does hearing her name excite you? You want to fuck that beta bitch, huh?”

Levi feels his face grow hot with anger.

“We're just friends,” he mutters. “I care about her. I guess that’s something you could never understand.”

Instantly, Levi regrets it, especially when Armin abruptly stands and takes his half-eaten dinner away. 

“Wait— Armin! I didn't mean that.”

He’s still hungry. He hadn’t eaten since yesterday, when Armin served him a small bowl of soup. It wasn’t enough. The food is never enough.

Armin slaps the plate on the bench and storms off to his medical bag. It’s a tell-tale sign his socialization is about to come to a close. Armin always tends to his wounds and such before disappearing back upstairs until the next day.

“Please, Armin, I’m sorry. I’m still hungry. Can I please have my food?”

“In a minute,” The omega responds shortly. He digs impatiently through the mess.

A pill bottle rattles from within, making Levi eye the bag warily. That’s new. New is never good down here. Finally, Armin seems to give up and opts to bring the whole slew of medical equipment over to him, plopping it down with a heavy sigh. The omega gets to work taking plastic wrapped syringes and two clear vials of liquid from the bag, laying them down beside the rattling bottle. 

“Armin?” he whispers. The omega hums in acknowledgement, but doesn’t look up. “What is that?

“Your medicine.”

“I don’t want any medicine.”

“I didn’t ask you what you want, now did I?”

Levi shuts up and hugs himself tighter. Half of him wants to reach up behind himself and fidget with the collar again. He doesn’t like this.

Armin works efficiently. He strips the plastic seal from the bottle and tips out a single white pill. He holds it out expectantly and drags Levi’s water bucket closer as well. 

“Here, take this.”

Levi nervously shakes his head. The last time he took something from Armin, it resulted in a miserably hard cock, and... 

Armin rolls his eyes at his refusal. He snatches the pill bottle and holds it out for Levi to read. Squinting in the gloom, Levi reads the tiny words, ‘Vitamin D’. Oh.

It’s definitely been over a week since Levi’s seen the sun. If Armin’s giving him supplements, he must be planning on keeping here long-term.

“It’s just medicine, Levi.”

Deciding not to push Armin’s patience, Levi accepts the pill with shaky fingers, places it on his tongue, and washes it down with stale water. While he does so, Armin prepares the syringes, shucking off their plastic pouches and uncapping them. It’s then that Levi notices that they’re not syringes at all. They’re needles.

His eyes slide to the little vials of clear liquids. The name on the label catches in his mind and his blood freezes.

Rugiresen : The name on the other vial isn’t familiar, but the containment of ‘estrus ’ on the other vial’s title makes it hard to misunderstand. The revelation flows over him like a cold shower. 

Armin plans to induce their mating cycles. Fuck. His eyes jump to the omega, who’s oblivious to Levi’s discovery, tipping one of the bottles upside down and jabbing a needle through the foil. If he doesn’t do something now, everything is about to get a lot worse. He doesn't want to think about what could come of this. He refuses to be complicit. Not again.

It takes a split second decision before Levi’s throwing himself at the omega, snarling. 

Armin is still preoccupied with drawing a dose from one of the vials to see him; Levi catches him off guard, tackling the omega to the unforgiving cement. Glass shatters and the needle skitters away out of reach. Levi’s heartbeat roars in his ears and he attacks like a rabid animal. Armin fights just as desperately. The omega scratches at Levi’s face, raking nails down the alpha’s cheeks and making his eyes water, while thrashing and snapping beneath Levi’s bulk.

Levi winds his arm back, fingers curling into a fist, and for a heartbeat, he sees utter terror in Armin’s eyes. A faint omegan whimper of fear slips from his lips. The sound tugs at Levi’s instincts and he can’t help how it forces him to hesitate. The omega looks so frightened — blue eyes wide and glassy, face pale. Levi shouldn’t feel bad, not after what Armin had done to him, but…

Armin takes his chance. 

One small hand lashes out, snatching Levi’s chain, and pulls. Levi gags as his windpipe is immediately cut off, hands flying to his throat in an attempt to tug the cruel metal away. A knee hits in the gut and Levi hunches over himself wheezing. Blindly, Levi swings, and this time, his blow lands. 

Immediately, Armin yelps like a kicked dog, releasing him. He gets a nasty kick to the face in return, his cheek and nose exploding in pain as Armin’s heel connects with an ugly, solid sound. Spots of light erupt behind Levi’s eyes and he curls away from the omega, cupping his bleeding nose. Distantly, he hears the sound of the omega skittering away out of his reach, hiccupping. 

Levi’s face hurts. His throat burns. Barely managing to peek open one eye, the other already swelling, he sees Armin on his butt, nearly crying. A red mark just by his temple and the swell already occurring by his eyes promise a bruise by tomorrow.

Serves him right, Levi thinks darkly.

Right in front of Levi, the last vial sits, unharmed. Before Armin can move a muscle, Levi surges forward, hardly sparing the time to look at the label, and smashes it to the ground, breaking that one too. 

Armin flinches at the harsh sound, but stays quiet. A heavy silence falls over the entire basement. The omega looks at the little puddle of liquid, slowly slipping down the drain. Hot blood drips down Levi’s lip from his nose and all he can taste and smell is iron.

The reality of the situation sets in. On one hand, Levi is just happy to escape that nightmare. On the other, he is very intimately aware that he just fucked up, big time. Worse yet, he’s still tethered and ultimately at Armin’s mercy. Given how the omega reacted to any of Levi’s previous ‘misdeeds’, Levi doubts Armin will take this lightly. Forgiveness did not seem to be a strong suit of his. Levi is more than aware that he will receive no mercy for this. 

Meeting Armin’s tear-filled gaze, Levi tries his best to keep his own expression level, when internally it feels like he might die of fear. 

The omega slowly looks up the broken glass to Levi, and his features morph into something angry. Levi quakes beneath the intensity. 

“Do you have any idea how hard it was to get those!” Armin shrieks. He clambers to his feet unsteadily, shaking with rage. “I did it for us! It was going to be perfect.”

“I don’t want anything you’re trying to give me,” Levi says. His voice betrays him, wavering slightly.

Armin angrily paces around, running his hands through his hair. “I can’t believe this,” he laughs bitterly, without any amusement. “I sacrificed so much for you — for us — and that’s how you repay me? Because you don’t want something? What about what I want? Huh!?”

Armin swings back to face him, pointing an accusatory finger.

“I was trying to do something nice for you. I got you some medicine, to make it easier for you. I would never hold your body’s problems against you, Levi — because I love you. That’s what you’re supposed to do with the people you love. Accept them for who they are and help them when they’re in need.”

Finishing his rant, the omega turns his back on him, hands going behind his head. Briefly, Levi ponders what might be going through the psycho’s head. To truly believe that inducing the rut of the man he’d kidnapped was a sign of love?

“Armin,” Levi says placatingly, shuffling as far away from the crazy omega as he can, sensing something big is coming. The best he can do is back himself into the corner. “I was just scared,” he tries, voice as soothing as he can manage. “I-I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Yes, he did, but he doesn’t say that. Not if he wants to keep his head attached to his body. The lies spill easily off his tongue.

“But you did. How could you hurt me, Levi?”

As usual, Armin disregards any of Levi’s words. He starts to wonder if the omega really hears him at all or if he’s constantly keeping up an illusion in his head. One where Levi is always professing his love and falling to his knees for him. If that was the case, he truly was fucked.

Armin looks at him, like he’s picking off Levi’s skin with his eyes and looking into his organs, finding what makes him tick. 

“How could you hurt the person that loves you — all of you? Including your faults.”

The hypocrisy makes Levi seethe. He scowls. 

“Are you fucking serious?” The words slip from Levi’s mouth before he can stop them. 

Armin straightens, arms at his side; he cocks a brow. It’s like he is surprised by this streak of boldness and just waiting to see what his captive will say.

“You have some fucking nerve, Armin,” Levi spits, getting worked up at Armin’s silence. “To kidnap me, hit me, r—” he pauses for a second, trembling, then continues on, “— to try to induce our cycles? Armin, are you nuts? That’s not love. That will never be love. It’s mental illness and you’re fucking delusional.”

After finishing a rant of his own, Levi takes a deep breath, pulse quickening. Armin doesn’t react how Levi expects him to. Instead of flying off the rails of screaming back, Armin merely shrugs. 

“Love makes you do strange things,” he says in a quiet voice. His face shows no remorse for any of the actions he’s done out of so-called ‘love’. “You want to know why I know that?”

Levi curls his lip at the omega’s patronizing tone. “I don’t give a shit what you think,” he snarls. 

Armin keeps that same, impassive expression. “Because even though you act out and try to do bad things, Levi,” Armin starts, taking a step towards him, “I know you love me too, deep down.”

That breaks Levi.

“I don’t love you!” He screams. “Why won’t you get that? You’re the crazy one here. You’re—”

The sudden shift in Armin’s expression cuts him off without a word needing to be said. The omega looks murderous. His eyes darken and his features sour. Levi senses that his time to speak freely is up. 

Without a word, the omega turns on heel, and paces away into the gloom of the basement. Levi’s skin crawls and a vicious shiver runs up his spine. He can distantly hear Armin rustling through the clutter just out of sight of the small semi-circle of light. Like a little pup, his mind imagines all sorts of awful things that could be happening over there in the dark.

“Armin?” He croaks softly, all of his earlier bravado vanishing like a wisp of steam. Unease replaces it. “Armin, what are you doing?”

He doesn’t get a reply. A few seconds later, the sounds of something metallic dragging across the floor towards him accompanies Armin’s steps as they creep closer. 

“Armin?” He calls once again, fearful. 

The omega steps back into the light. In his hands, an ancient but sturdy looking, golf club. There are still cobwebs clinging to it. Levi feels the blood drain from his face. 

“You know I hate it when you say things like that, Levi,” Armin says. Tears have pooled in his eyes. The golf club glints menacingly under the light of the bulb. Levi cowers away. “Take it back! Take it all back! I know you love me!”

“Armin, you have to let me go,” Levi tries to choke out over his heaving breaths. He can’t breathe. Fuck, he’s so scared. “This isn’t right. I don’t love you.”

Armin winds the club behind him and like an expert golfer, swings through with the core strength of a pro. 

Agony explodes through Levi’s ribs and he’s certain something cracks. The sheer pain knocks the breaths from his lungs — the blow keeps it away. Levi crumples to the floor, rolling to his stomach, mouth open in a wordless scream. He can’t breathe, can't talk, can't move. His entire existence is pain. Weakly, he holds his hands out, trying to intercept any further blows. He can feel his arms trembling.

The club cracks a few of his fingers and he shrieks like a banshee. Abandoning his effort to block the blows, Levi tries to crawl away instead, dragging himself on shaking, throbbing wrists like a worm.

“Take it back.”

Armin sounds on the verge of tears. 

Levi tries. He does. He tries to say the words that will calm Armin and stop this madness, but he can’t get any air out. His mouth moves through the words, but apparently, that isn’t enough for the omega. 

Again, the club whooshes through the air, and pain explodes along Levi’s back. Metal meets skin and bone with a meaty crack.

It’s like the strike jolts his body back into action. A tortured shriek rips from his lungs and he arches like he’s being electrocuted again. It certainly feels like electricity down his spine. Each nerve ending fires in sparks away from the blow. 

Armin hits him again. Levi howls like a beaten dog. Perhaps it isn’t too far from the truth.

“You love me!” Armin screams, reigning blow after blow down upon Levi’s cowering, sobbing, screaming form. He doesn’t even stop to give Levi any reprieve, any chance to talk. They keep coming and coming. “You love me, you love me, you love me! I saw it!” He punctuates each demand of love with a ruthless blow.

Through the snotty tears and bawling cries, Levi finally manages to get the air in to scream out. “I love you!”

All at once, the assault stops. Levi’s pathetic crying is the only sound in the basement. He’s crying so hard, he can barely get the breath in before it’s sobbing back out. Snot and tears drip down his face and make a mess on the floor. He’s sure he’s bleeding. Armin might have cracked a bone or two. No part of him feels untouched. His skin’s hot all over from the abuse and no doubt broken open in oozing red sores.

Armin lets him cry for a moment. Surely, it’s to let Levi wallow in his own stupidity, make sure he’s learned his lesson. Why should Armin comfort him? Levi’s the one who went and acted like an idiot. What was he thinking, provoking the omega?

The club clattering to the ground makes Levi flinch. Armin squats near his bowed head and cards soft, gentle hands through his hair. Levi just chokes on his next sob. The touch of the omega soothes some deep-rooted part of him. Like how his mother used to comfort him as a child.

“I know,” Armin whispers. He pets Levi’s head a few more times, brushing the alpha’s long black bangs away from his sweaty forehead. “I know, Levi. Sometimes I just need you to say it. Or else I fear you’ll forget it.”

Levi hiccups and shivers. 

“I love you, Armin,” he forces out weakly. 

Sweetly, the omega lifts his head by the chin and pecks him on one wet cheek, saying nothing in response.

Notes:

👀

Chapter 6

Notes:

Chapter 6, brought to you by A Fear of the Dark (tm)

Happy reading! 😌💜

Armin at least doctors him up before he goes. Levi’s gauze has already soaked through in a few places, and his whole body throbs in time with his pulse, but at least his wounds have some sort of dressing. He half expected to be left shivering in pain, but fuck what he wouldn’t give for some sort of pain killer. He knows the omega has to have something on him. Armin doesn’t want him to get any sort of infection. It makes sense, he supposes; taking him to a hospital if he were to fall ill would expose the omega’s crimes immediately. Or, if the infection were severe enough and Armin didn’t feel particularly inclined to save him — Levi could die.

Levi doesn’t think that’s the goal here, given how much planning and work Armin has put into keeping him here.

But, he can make sure Levi remembers this lesson. His wounds have been treated to the point where he won’t worry about Levi keeling over in the middle of the night, but the pain is Levi’s to mull over.

As Armin leaves, he clicks off the dingy basement light bulb, ignoring Levi’s hitching cries for him to please leave it on. Each heavy, thunking step the omega takes up the stairs raises Levi’s anxiety higher and higher, before ultimately, the basement door creaks closed. The tiny rectangle of light wanes to a sliver before disappearing completely. And just like that, Levi is left in utter darkness, his chest heaving with irrational fear, and hot tears tracking down his cheeks. The blood under his nose has gone cold and tacky, but he dares not venture away from the safety of the wall to wash at the bucket. Arms wrapped tight around his legs, he shivers, chin to knees, and counts the seconds until the light comes back.

He isn’t sure if he ever rests that night, or if the nightmares occur in his waking hours, illusions and tricks of the mind tormenting him. If his eyes remain open or if he shuts them tight — it’s no difference. The darkness is absolute. 

Though he’s not proud of it, he whimpers for hours, calling out for Armin, begging him to open the door or turn on the light. His cries go unanswered. 

Before Armin, he wasn’t particularly afraid of the dark; he’d walked through the poorly lit park on many occasions on his way home from work. He was able to sleep without a light on in his apartment. That was all Before, though. Down here, there’s no light at all. No windows. No bulbs. No glow from under the crack of the door. He’s naked and cold and tired and everything is all so unpredictable. It does fucky things to his head.

In the corners of his eyes, in the pitch black nothingness, he swears he sees shit move. It feels like there’s something else down here with him. He’s bare — naked — anything could creep from the shadows and grab him and he’d have nothing at all to defend himself with, nothing to cover himself with and hide away from it all. 

The childish fear has him whimpering and crying like a pup all the way until morning. 

 

---

 

The door creaks open and the light returns.

It blinds him at first; it’s too bright. His pupils shrink to pin points and he buries his face in his knees. After hours of wishing for some light, he can barely stand its presence. Irony at its finest. Still, he continues to rock himself. He isn’t sure when he started to do so, but now, he can’t stop. It’s monotonous — something he can rely on to not change. 

Back and forth. Back and forth. 

Levi thinks this is the longest Armin’s left him down here yet. Or perhaps it felt longer because Levi was so scared.

But he hasn’t moved from his spot in the corner the entire time. Hunger eats away at his gut, like it was gnawing at his muscles and organs to sustain itself. His legs and back complain from being hunched over in the same position for so long. Especially now that Armin’s here, he doesn’t want to uncurl; he doesn’t want to expose any part of himself to the omega. His side throbs with each inhale.

He hears Armin descend the stairs, and the omega coos at him, “Oh, you poor thing…”

Hate curls in his heart. Armin put him here. Armin hit him. Armin turned off the lights. 

Everything is Armin’s fault.

Slowly, Levi lifts his head from his knees, a sneer pulling at his lips. He lets some fang flash at the omega in an attempt to ward him away. The tremors shaking Levi like a leaf cancel out any intimidation he might have anyway.

Armin walks by him, looking down the end of his nose like he was looking at a misbehaving dog. Tucked under each arm are pinky, fuzzy blankets. A little part of Levi relishes at the mottled blue bruise forming at his temple. It looks so out of place on his rather innocent, angelic face, but Levi knows the real him. He deserves it and so much worse. He growls under his breaths, faint enough to get away with.

“Ooh, want to try that look again, Levi?” Armin’s voice is pure ice. It’s dangerously steady, and Levi understands the playful lit to the words are not actually out of amusement, but a warning.

The pulsing wounds all over his body and his stuffy nose make him drop his lip. He looks away instead, but sneaks glances out of the corner of his eyes when Armin isn’t looking, watching him place the blankets down.

Levi hopes the blankets are for him. Pink is not ideal, but he honestly doesn’t give a shit, as long as he can have something between him and the cold, leeching floor. 

That might be wishful thinking. The blankets are just out of reach of his semi-circle, teasing him with the freshly washed, soft fibers. Cruel on Armin’s part. 

Levi thinks there might be honest-to-god tears in his eyes from sheer longing. He wants to be warm again so fucking bad and not in the way he is now — hot from pain and healing wounds.

Armin turns back to him and hums in approval at Levi’s controlled anger. Knowing that he’ll do something stupid and just piss Armin off further, Levi keeps his eyes averted. It’s safer that way.

“There we are,” Armin says brightly. “Much better.”

Without taking his eyes off the pile of blankets, Levi asks, “What are those for?”

“A nice little spot I’m building for us. If you’re good, you’ll be rewarded. I’ll let you sleep in the nest, alpha — if you behave.”

Nest?

Alarm bells went off in Levi’s head. This wasn’t an olive branch; it was a means of control. If Armin thought he could temp Levi into being complicit by exchanging a basic need, he was going to be disappointed. Though it pained him to do so, Levi shook his head. Dull pain spanned through his head at the movement and he winced. Sadly, whatever Armin would want from him was not worth a few meager blankets. Levi wasn’t about to debase himself like that just yet.

Armin smirks at him. “Of course, it’s not finished yet. Let me get the rest, then you can make up your mind.”

With that, he disappeared back up the stairs, leaving Levi to warily gaze upon the rumpled pile. Slowly, bit by bit, the assorted materials grew as Armin unloaded armful after armful. A floor cushion that looked suspiciously similar to a dog bed was dragged down as well.

Before long, the opposite corner of Levi’s little prison is full of fluffy pink nesting material like soft blankets and pillows atop a comfy mattress, making an almost kiddish looking pillow fort, complete with twinkling fairy lights strung around it.

Armin stands back, hands on his hips, proudly observing the cozy nest. Even Levi has to admit it’s nice. Atrociously pink as it is. It looks like a bottle of pepto-bismol exploded over there. 

The omega smirks back at him over his shoulder. “What do you think, Levi?”

He scowls and refuses to answer, squeezing his legs in closer. He won’t be bought with cheap tricks.

With an exaggerated pout, Armin says, “Don’t you like it? I made it for us.”

He goes back to the fluffy monstrosity and shifts around a couple of the pillows and blankets, peeling back one of the layers to tempt Levi in with its promises of cozy naps. Levi can’t help but stare sadly at it, despite his determination to refuse Armin.

“I even put little night lights in for you, because I know you don’t like the dark.”

Levi’s nails split open the skin of his arms as he digs them in. Biting his tongue to keep down the vicious retort, he says nothing.

Armin’s footsteps come closer, stopping just short of his chain. It makes Levi gloat internally that the omega was leerier of him after their tussle. Maybe the memory would ward him off for a bit. Give Levi some time to gather himself.

“Tell you what?” Armin says. “I’ll let you sleep there tonight, so you can get a feel for it. Then you’ll know what your reward can be!”

So, he thinks he can entice Levi into behaving by giving him a sample? The alpha dares to bare his teeth at him. To his surprise, Armin’s smirk only grows.

“I’ll be right back, Alpha.” His voice is honeyed. The kind of tone a married couple would use when parting for errands.

Again, Levi is left alone, with only the winking lights of the silly nest to accompany him. This time Armin leaves the door open at the top of the steps and Levi swears it’s actual sunlight somewhere up there. The hallway looks bright — and not just from fluorescent bulbs.

How long has it been since he slept in a bed? How long has it been since Armin took him? Levi doesn’t even know, and that scares him. Has it been a month? A few weeks? Has it only been a few days?

He wishes he had even a little bit of a hint, but Armin was good at keeping him in the literal dark. Shuddering to himself, he remembers the endless nothing, not too long ago. 

Then, he perks up, an idea popping into his head. That vitamin Armin gave him — vitamins were supposed to be taken daily to actually have an effect, weren’t they? Maybe Levi could start keeping track of the days by how many pills Armin gave him. Sure, he couldn’t tell time, but at least he’d be able to start tracking to an extent. Some little bit of consciousness to keep him sane.

A more morbid thought comes to mind.

The mating cycle is every three months. It’s different for each person, but Levi just had his last rut about a week Before. If Levi hits his rut… then he’ll know it will have been roughly three months in the basement. Under Armin’s feet. Hidden away from the world.

Abducted.

The possibility of being down here that long makes him shiver in terror. He’s not sure he can take three months of the dark. Fuck, he can’t take it already.

Whilst Levi’s mind spirals, panic making his chest rise and fall shallowly, Armin comes thumping down the steps, humming cheerfully. In his hands, a little bowl steams enticingly. A sweet smell reaches his nose and Levi instantly perks up. Hot food? With the promise of flavor? Rare nowadays. Armin’s food is always so bland, or long cold by the time he comes down to feed Levi.

Worry temporarily forgotten about, Levi zeroes in on the omega as he comes closer; more specifically — the bowl in his hands. Hunger claws through his insides. He feels hollow. He doesn’t know how long it’s been since he last ate. Or the last time he even felt full.

Armin laughs at his desperate expression. “Ah, somebody’s hungry, huh?”

The way Armin talks to him always makes him feel so small, like he’s a doll to play around with more than a person. Less than human — as useful as the tricycle now hanging forgotten on the ceiling. Levi wonders when the last time someone rode it. If they knew that was their last time ever. Now it rots in the basement, just like Levi. 

At least he’s still being played with. Swallowing sharply, the image of his body sitting here, chained to the wall, dead, pops into his mind. Armin could simply stop coming down here one day. If Levi pissed him off or stopped being entertaining, Armin could do away with him like all the other junk down here. 

The cinch around his heart and lungs grows just a little bit tighter. 

Oblivious to Levi’s thoughts, or simply uncaring, Armin kneels in front of him, cheerfully scooping some of the beige mush onto the plastic spoon. It looks like oatmeal. Levi doesn’t particularly like oatmeal, but it’s hot, and that looks like cinnamon on the top. So, he’ll take it. 

Eagerly, he opens his mouth, stretching forward against the collar, and lets Armin spoon some in. It’s sticky and warm and it’s hard to swallow with his dry throat, but it tastes fantastic.  

Not only is there cinnamon on it, but it tastes like there’s some honey in there too. It’s sweet. 

Levi just might cry, he’s so happy. Each spoonful is happily accepted and Levi remains as silent as a mouse, just in case. He won’t risk losing another meal to Armin’s anger. 

Thankfully, Armin doesn’t really talk to him while Levi eats his breakfast, but he does giggle a bit at Levi’s eagerness and Levi hates him for it. The little psycho found Levi’s torture entertaining. 

The omega brushes Levi’s bangs back from his forehead affectionately, and makes it awfully hard for Levi not to snap at his fingers. Armin touches him in a way that makes his stomach roll and threatens to make him lose his precious meal. A rare moment of fullness cannot be wasted, so Levi stamps it down. Endures. As he’s done before. 

It’s just a touch. It’s not hurting anybody. He can calm down. 

All too soon, the bowl is empty. Levi mournfully watches as Armin walks away with it. Though, it probably is a good thing the omega has taken it away. Levi honestly would have licked the bowl clean if he was allowed. Just to taste the sweet honey for a bit longer. 

Mouth sticky, Levi suddenly desperately needs a drink. A gritty film is all over his tongue and the inside of his teeth, so he creeps to the water bucket and sips as quietly as he can, before swishing a mouthful — pausing to consider Armin’s turned back — before deciding against it and spitting in the drain. 

His wounds still hurt from the golf club. Spitting at Armin won’t do anything but piss him off. If Levi were to take that risk, he’d at least need to be smart about it, and it would have to be for something useful, like escaping. Mood darkening, Levi snatches the clean cloth Armin dropped for him earlier and quickly dunks it in to scrub his face clean. He’s careful around his tender nose. The white cloth comes back a rusty brown and he grimaces. Disgusting …

He swipes the washcloth under his poor nose a few times before deeming himself as clean as he can get. Grumpily, he slinks back to the wall, and away from Armin. 

If Armin really wanted to win him over, he could start with a hot bath. Or a fucking cup of tea, for crying out loud. That was what Levi really wanted. 

The concrete wall is rough against his back and the stone floor digs into his ass, but Levi firmly keeps a hold of his tongue. He won’t ask for the nest. He doesn’t need it. 

To make himself feel better, Levi glares at Armin’s turned back. The omega tinkers with something over by the workbench, still humming that same, light-hearted tune. The nest of pink blankets in the corner is just to his left, the fairly lights glittering innocently. A stark contrast to Levi’s current set up. 

He takes in the inhuman conditions: the chain and the bucket and the drain. His stomach drops. He hugs his knees to his chest and props his chin on them, sighing deeply. Armin still hasn’t turned his back and Levi realizes that he actually feels… ignored. Annoyance sparks within him at that, which is a silly emotion, because he hates Armin. And Levi doesn’t like it one bit. He rather likes it when Armin isn’t near him… isn’t touching him…

A phantom shiver runs through him and he swallows his breakfast in his throat.

But still, if Armin had to be down here with him, Levi would rather he interact with him. If not, he should go back upstairs. There was no reason for him to skulk around like this. If he wasn’t going to talk to Levi, Levi didn’t want to see him. Anger rises the longer Armin stands there with his back to him. 

Turn around, Levi thinks, talk to me.

Impatiently, he wiggles his toes and sighs again through his nose. His flank hurts on the deep inhale and he winces. The sounds of Armin’s menial movements start to drone into background noise. It had been so long since someone simply existed in the same space as him. The gentle clattering starts to make him drowsy. 

It’s dark again, but he still hears Armin moving around the basement. 

No, Levi's eyes are closed, and he’s slumped against the wall at one point, cheek resting on the cold, gritty material. With great effort, he forces his lids open, but they threaten to slip shut again anyway. The world has turned to thick pudding around him and Levi is so tired—

Fuck.

It finally clicks to him. 

When was he going to stop falling for that?

Through his struggling vision, he watches Armin approach him, a small smile on his face. 

“Sweet dreams, Levi.” He hears him whisper.

Notes:

Aww Levi, when are you going to stop falling for that? Or are you to reliant on Armin to realize when he can slip something into your food and drink? 😈

Chapter 7

Notes:

Welcome to ch 7!

We descend further into the horrors of the basement... 😈

Levi is warm. 

Consciousness comes slowly, trickling in faintly — a thought here, a sensation there. He’s enshrouded in heat. For the first time in a long time, Levi is bundled up in softness and safety. Buttery soft fabric tickles over his prickling skin. There’s a sensation at his groin, casual pleasure spreading through him like a gentle wave. He grunts in the back of his throat and rubs his face on a pillow that smells soothing, mouth still not quite ready to work properly. It feels stuck.

It’s almost too hot. 

After so long of freezing cold, Levi is now burning up.

Groaning softly under his breath, he stirs, cracking his eyes open slightly. Equally soft light greets his eyes. The gentle glow of the twinkling fairy lights.

A few things become apparent as his mind catches up to his state of wakefulness. He’s laying on his side on top of a large cushion, surrounded by a sea of dizzying pink pillows. Fuzzy, thick blankets are woven all around him in a tight cocoon. All pink. 

Pink. Pink, pink, pink. 

Something at the back of Levi’s brain tickles. The Pink Nest. 

Another muffled, throaty noise involuntarily tears from his chest, startling him, when something gripping him firmly strokes up his cock again. His eyes shoot open wide and he tries, unsuccessfully, to roll to his stomach to stop the assault, but it’s like his body is filled with lead. Everything feels heavy and sluggish. His arms won’t come apart. There’s something fixed snuggly around each wrist.

“Hey there, baby,” a voice whispers softly. Tears prick Levi’s eyes and he chokes down a sob. 

Armin. What has Armin done to him?

He’s touching him. That’s for sure; long, slow, sensual pulls of Levi’s aching cock. Like he was trying to coax Levi awake by tempting his base urges to fuck. He wants to be sick.

And Levi is burning up. Suddenly more aware of what’s going on around him, all Levi can smell is leather, slick, and Armin. 

Something is around his head and it won’t come off. Levi groans again and tries to scrub his face against the pillows and his forearms to wiggle it off, but it doesn’t budge. There’s a series of straps crossing over different portions of his head: one on his crown, one at the back of his head and a split strap that melds into a single band over the top of his head and all the way to the base of his skull. Where it then hooks to a thick band of leather, which completely covers Levi’s mouth and cheeks. 

He’s… muzzled. 

Like a feral alpha. Like a criminal. 

He tries to scream in the back of his throat, eyes squeezing shut in misery, but it breaks off into a moan when Armin strokes his cock again.

“Shh, shh, shh,” Armin shushes him, using his free hand to tuck some of Levi’s hair behind his ear. “It’s just so we can be safe. We don’t want any accidents, now do we?”

He giggles at his own words, like it’s all one big joke. But Levi doesn’t find anything funny about this at all. He’s petrified. He can’t move; he feels drunk.

Desperately, he tries to reason with the omega, but it’s all muffled gibberish behind the muzzle. Eventually, it just turns to hopeless whimpers.

Rock bottom. Rock bottom. Rock bottom.

Armin rubs his back, “It’s okay. I know you’re overwhelmed by the sudden change, but I wanted to introduce you to the nest!”

Levi shakes his head from side to side, disoriented and overwhelmed. No. No, this can’t be happening? How?

Another tug on his cock makes him shriek in the back of his throat. 

God, it’s so hot. Beneath the leather, his skin is moist and sticks to the harsh material like a second skin. All around him, the nest absorbs his heat and makes it so stuffy, so miserable. Each puff of breath out of his nose is strangled and laborious — half from anxiety and half from…

Rut. 

It’s a cold stone in the pit of his stomach. How could he be in rut? There’s no way it’s been three months. It’s not possible. It’s simply not.

Armin… he must have done something. He must. This isn’t right!

His cycle is still on the rise. It’s settled in his bones and gut, making him burn with fever, but he hasn’t lost his mind yet. There’s an irresistible need in his groin, but he isn’t dumb with the need to breed. 

He still has time. 

Moaning from sheer misery, Levi surges up and tries to get away, wobbling unsteadily in the squishy nest. Armin yelps in surprise, tiny hands yanking him back down with a thump. 

“Whoa now!” he laughs, standing up on his knees and swinging one leg over Levi’s waist to straddle him. “Where are you off to, Alpha? I’m right here in our nest. You don’t need to leave for anything.”

Whilst Levi writhes beneath him, trying to buck the omega off, Armin leans over and plucks something from beside the nest. Clinking chains catches Levi’s attention and he makes it his goal to not let Armin get any more restraints on him. Ducking under his hands, Levi tries to roll to throw him off, snatching his head away anytime Armin even remotely comes near him. 

The omega tsks, frustrated, following after him with the chain. “C’mon, Leviii~” he taunts, grinning. “You like the chain! What’s this all about?”

Armin makes it sound so juvenile, like Levi was a toddler that didn’t want to get dressed. A suspiciously childish feeling rises in his chest at Armin using the collar against him. It’s not any of his fucking business what Levi thinks about the prong collar. It’s not that Levi likes the collar or being chained down here all the time. It’s not his fault that the collar has become the one thing he has to entertain himself with outside of a fucking bucket of water. 

If he weren’t muzzled, he would have snapped his teeth into Armin long ago — not stopping until he felt bones break. Instead, he’s hobbled and weak beneath him, putting up a fuss in a losing fight. Too soon, Armin catches him over the crown of his head with a triumphant, “Aha!”, and snicks the collar into place with its lock. 

A desperate, defeated sob shakes his shoulders. Why does it feel like failure?

Armin gently takes his leather-bound cheeks in hand and tilts his head back. Levi doesn’t give him satisfaction, letting his eyes roam anywhere but near the omega. The warm tears tracking from the corner of his eyes aren’t real. None of this is.

With all the care of a devoted lover, Armin thumbs away his tears, and Levi simply feels not in his body. Disengaged from reality, he lays limply beneath Armin and lets his head be held, motionless. He looks in the distance, but doesn’t see. He refuses to comprehend the weight in his lap. Or the feeling of Armin’s bare skin brushing against his stiff, weeping cock, as the omega leans down and laps across his gland. A sudden, violent shiver shoots through his body when a trail of hot saliva is left behind. His instincts slam to the forefront of his mind, spurred on by the stimulation.

When the bubbly haze of rut crawls through his mind, he welcomes it. As he rolls them over, mindless, Armin’s pleased giggles sear into his mind, fading into background noise. 

 

---

 

They spend the next two days with Levi between Armin’s thighs, pinning the omega down, and mechanically fucking into him. There’s hardly a break for him to breathe. He’s always horny, no matter how often he comes or if he knots. The swell refuses to crest. It hurts. It drives his instincts insane and the world narrows to a pinpoint: fuck and breed.

Armin coos for him and strokes his hair like a lover while Levi groans deliriously. He can do little more than stick his cock in the omega over and over again. There’s no relief in the sex, but his body drives him to mount the nearest thing regardless, desperate for a break from the never-ending need.

It’s a droning job. His thighs slap against Armin’s ass tiredly, hips moving subconsciously, continuously plapping in and out. He’s never satisfied, always hard and aching. His thighs, abs, and glutes burn from so much use. He sighs and groans — nuzzles into Armin’s hair — forever chasing the unattainable within the omega.

Neither of them get much rest, but Armin doesn’t seem to mind one single bit. For the most part, he lays beneath Levi, moaning and squirming, clenching down on his cock and taking Levi’s knot countless times. All with that same creepy, pleased smile on his face. Every once and a while, he’s kind and gives Levi a break by flipping them and riding him, but Levi hates it. He needs —

He needs…

Nothing makes much sense anymore. The fever burns bright and hot through his body and Levi wouldn’t be surprised if it was melting his brain inside his skull.

Occasionally, the omega slinks from the nest when Levi’s body physically shuts down and he sags uselessly in the nest, breathing heavily, and barely able to lift his head. The horrible fire is still there in his groin, but he physically cannot get up. In some faraway part of Levi’s mind, he wonders if this is worse torture than anything else he’s experienced in the basement. 

During these moments of ‘reprieve’, Armin brings them simple food, slipping off the muzzle to hand feed Levi choice bits, while he himself snacks heartily. There’s no concern from the omega that Levi will attack. He can barely lift his head to accept Armin’s offerings. Chewing feels nearly impossible. The energy needed to move his mouth or swallow is simply not there. 

Though Levi’s hungry, and he fears he’s lost some weight he couldn’t afford to lose to the taxing rut, he can barely stomach food anyways. 

It’s not nausea exactly, but more of a festering, rotten sensation in the pit of his stomach.

The worst? It flares with Armin’s presence. His skin screams when the omega nuzzles into him. Something inside his chest breaks a little more each time he feels the omega squeeze around his knot. Phantom shivers trail up his spine when Armin moans his name. He feels like he should be crying or yelling, but all he can do is mimic the omega, though his sounds of pleasure ring hollow. 

 

---

 

The miserable, unsatisfying, painful rut ends abruptly not long after the second day passes. 

It’s like invisible strings that were holding Levi up are cut. One moment, he’s clutching Armin close, grunting as the physical strain makes his core cry from overuse. Then, he’s finishing pitifully with a weak groan and—

That’s it.

He doesn’t even muster a knot this time. It’s just over. Like that.

The burn is gone. The drive to mate evaporates faster than he thought physically possible. In its place, a different burn resides. Every muscle in Levi’s body is screaming at him in some way. The elevated fever has left him feeling weak and wasted. The wounds from the club still haven’t healed either, so they too throb with his complaining muscles. 

Numbly, he falls to the nest, not unlike previous times when he collapsed out of sheer exhaustion, blanketing himself over top of Armin. His eyes can barely stay open. If allowed to, he’s sure he could sleep like the dead for a week straight. He wishes he would. If it meant he wouldn’t have to see Armin.

He’s seen enough of the omega writhing beneath him, grinning up at him, touching him, moaning into his skin, kissing his chest, mouthing over his neck—

Levi swallows hard. There’s not much in his stomach anyway.

Armin doesn’t seem much better off than him. He hums sleepily, nuzzling against Levi and tracing a sleepy hand over his back as the alpha tries to catch his breath. His fine blond hair splays disheveled over the pillows and he also looks equally exhausted from the constant fucking.

“Mmm, baby,” he mumbles sleepily, thumbing over Levi’s muzzle-clad cheek. “Do you want me to go get us a snack since you hit a lull?”

Not answering him, Levi buries his face in the ruined nest, taking slow, deep breaths in an attempt to even them out. It’s so fucking hard when there was something over his nose and mouth. It’s too hot, too stuffy. Armin stretches languidly, then sniffs at Levi’s neck curiously. He makes a surprised sound in the back of his throat. 

“Oh, you’re done.”

Disappointment colors his voice. 

The omega wiggles out from underneath him and Levi doesn’t lift a finger to help. Not even out of spite, but because he genuinely doesn’t think he has it in him to move. Armin sits up, taking a moment to clean himself up with a soiled blanket from the nest, before slipping a shirt on. Only then, does he make a move to wipe down Levi’s back, then nudge him to his side so he can swipe around his groin.

Levi lets him do as he pleases.

Really, he’d prefer to wash at the bucket (or a proper bath), but he also knows he doesn’t have the strength to drag himself over to it. And Armin doesn’t seem kind enough to bring it to him even if he asked. 

When Armin deems them clean (Levi will never be clean again), he shuffles closer, lifting Levi’s head which feels like it weighs a thousand pounds, and pillows it on his thigh. While softly praising him, Armin starts to undo the buckles of the muzzle, finally freeing him for good. The cold basement air has never been more welcomed. Levi sucks in his first crisp, fresh breath in over two days. His mouth feels disgusting and his face feels weird. Grime coats every single pore on his face, he’s sure of it. He’ll have to scrub himself raw with a washcloth the next chance he gets. Though it’s unbecoming, Levi smacks his lips together, relearning what it’s like to move his mouth and open his jaw. Fingers rhythmically card through his hair, strangely soothing.

It’s eerily domestic in the basement then. They together lay in the destroyed nest, where Levi just spent the past couple of days fucking the man that abducted him. Willingly. 

He held him down and took him over and over again. And Armin lapped up every second.

Levi closes his eyes, and finds that he can’t even muster the tears to cry. What was wrong with him?

It’s then that notices his arm is sore — not like the physical strain he feels all over — but deep in the muscle, like he’s received a flu shot. He presses against the spot rhythmically. It definitely feels different to the rest of the pain in his body.

“You drugged me,” Levi rasps tiredly. More of a statement than an accusation. It’s the only reasonable conclusion.

Armin hums. “Just some sleep aid to safely move you. I didn’t want to have to fight you again.” Cruelly, he presses on one of Levi’s bruises like a reminder, making the alpha wince. 

Levi’s not convinced. “No, after that. The inducer.”

Armin tilts his head, an innocent, borderline perplexed look on his face. “What do you mean? No I didn’t.”

Levi slurs, trying to raise his head. “The Rugiresen; the rut inducer.”

Blue eyes widen dramatically. “Oh, that? Levi —” he chides, condescending. He swipes some hair from Levi’s forehead. “You broke it, remember? During that little episode you had.” He scrunches his nose up like it was a funny little memory.

That… makes Levi falter. He did smash the vials. Both of them. The rut and the heat inducer together. Unless… 

“How do I know you just didn’t have more?” Levi challenges. Armin must be in a particularly generous mood, because he indulges Levi’s inquiries. 

Even stranger — Armin smiles at him. Genuinely. He runs the pad of his thumb over Levi’s lips in thought, unafraid of the alpha’s teeth just behind.

“I’ve been shadowing a clinician that’s been doing research with those experimental inducers this semester,” the omega starts. “They keep inventory on them, obviously. I thought I could avoid suspicion if I only took those two doses, so I couldn’t swipe more even if I wanted to.” He sighs heavily, a sound full of longing, “I wanted to induce us together…” He trails off, a far away look in his eyes. Yearning paints his face. 

“I should be thanking you for stopping me, Levi.” 

He’s not sure if it’s the after-effects of the rut, but the words don’t quite click in Levi’s mind at first. Once they’ve sunk in, he furrows his brow, looking up at Armin. 

Through dry lips, he whispers, “What? What do you mean?”

Armin is still smiling down at him, so pleased with him. 

“I shouldn’t have been so harsh with you after, but I was disappointed. I had been so excited for us to share a cycle together — our first one! But, I wasn’t thinking right, stealing those drugs. Love makes you act irrationally, I guess.” He strokes over the alpha’s hair and coos, “You were just looking out for me, weren’t you?”

Alright, Levi’s still confused. He eyes the omega warily. Vague rambling isn’t new, but this is starting to prickle Levi’s skin with suspicion. Thankfully, Armin continues.

“My mentor immediately suspected me of the missing inventory. Administration had me roll up my sleeves and prove I hadn’t injected anything. They searched my bags and even had me take a urine sample. So, in a way, you saved us.” Armin’s smile fills his whole face. He truly is pleased with Levi. 

Despite not having the muzzle on anymore, Levi can’t breathe. His brain keeps looping Armin’s words in his mind. 

You saved us…

No. What had he done? If he hadn’t—?

If he had just let Armin have his way. If he had just let them omega induce them, sucked it up and fucked like rabbits in love, maybe there would have been a chance… he could have been saved….

Levi is numb. He doesn’t cry, he doesn’t scream about how unfair it all is; he just lays there, brain static-y like white noise. 

Because it didn’t matter. 

He fucked Armin anyways. All of that for nothing. Inadvertently, he’d thrown away his one chance at rescue.

Armin continues on, blabbering, like he always does, never batting an eye to Levi’s reactions. Or lack thereof.

“It all worked out in the end,” he simpers, tugging his fingers through Levi's hair as he speaks. “I guess I shouldn’t have doubted you like that. After all, you kept us safe! — and then, when I built us a nice nest to share together, you went into rut anyways, all for me?”

Armin hums in his throat, soothing his hand through Levi’s hair, but it does nothing to calm the raging, buzzing storm in Levi’s head. “It’s like your body was making it up to me.”

It was natural? He rutted all because an omega he’d been forced into proximity with — his only human interaction in weeks — built him a nest? Levi wants to crawl out of his own skin. He’s never felt so betrayed by his own body. His instincts saw this psycho nesting for him, showing him a plush space to mate in, and that was enough to convince them to rut.

“You’re such a sweet alpha,” the omega coos. “And you fuck so good too—”

Levi wants to throw up.

“—What did I do to deserve you? I can’t wait for us to have a combined cycle. Then, everything will be just perfect.”

Notes:

The end of daily uploads! I'll see you in a week! ;) 💜

Chapter 8

Notes:

Hehe, welcome back! 😈

To put it simply, I loved writing this chapter, and I hope you love reading it 💜

CW: Levi losing touch on reality, coping mechanisms (both healthy and unhealthy), and Armin being mean (shocker)😌

Seventy-six pills. Seventy-six days. That’s about two and half months; almost eleven weeks.

Thirty-two pills since the incident with The Pink Nest.

Levi sits in his corner, on his chain, and rhythmically cinches his collar. The pressure around his throat soothes him, like a firm hand on his shoulder, grounding him. 

He nibbles his thumbnail while rocking on the balls of his feet. His eyes dart around the basement, which is poorly illuminated by the faintly twinkling fairy lights, and counts the same sights he’s seen every day for the past two and half months.

Sixty-two tiny bulbs all together. Two strands connected at the end. One naked bulb hanging from a beam on the ceiling. Twelve pillows on the nest, four blankets swaddled around, and one big mattress on the bottom. One drain. One workbench, three bags overflowing with tools, one stool, one bike, one tricycle, four pegs in the ceiling. Nine support beams total, sixteen steps on the stairs. One hand rail, eighteen spokes going down. 

Five wooden shelving units, three individual shelves per unit, forty-eight tubs total.

Cinch the collar for ten seconds, feel the rush as he releases it, and count the fleeting moments of bliss.

Ten fingers, ten toes, twenty nails total. One Levi. One Armin. 

He counts the days by pills. It’s been over two months since he’s seen sunlight. He’s been missing for at least three. 

If a person isn’t found within 72 hours, their chances fall slimmer and slimmer the longer time goes by. As Levi rocks on the balls of his feet, hugging himself, alone down in Armin’s basement, never being found starts to become more and more of a reality. 

Sometimes, when counting starts to make him feel insane, he daydreams — thinks. He thinks about his friends and if they’re still looking for him. Did they ever report him missing in the first place? They must have; Isabel and Farlan were like family to him. They must have noticed he was gone. They must have looked. 

Even if they didn’t, his work definitely noticed he never came back. Prior to all this, Levi was punctual to every shift. He liked working at the cafe. Sure, it wasn’t a six-figure job, but it was a job. It was his — his life! He built it all on his own — crawled from the depths of what he thought was for sure his doomed future and made something of himself. 

Tears well up in his eyes as he reminisces about the past, his days of freedom. It feels like a lifetime ago. It’s hard to remember what his normal was. A routine of getting up in the morning, eating, dressing, going to work—

He misses the mundane events of a normal, boring life. Picking out clothes, waking up early, expressing himself, feeling warm… Levi misses it. Armin still hasn’t given him his clothes back nor offered anything in replacement. Armin probably burned them, if he was being honest. They were evidence.

Perhaps Levi was gone the moment he walked through that park. 

And that’s the worst part.

He doesn’t remember… anything after.

There’s nothing. He got off of work late, walked home by himself, cut through the park, then woke up tied to a chair in Armin’s basement. And his new life began. A life that consists of a five-foot radius chain and a dingy, overcrowded basement. One bucket, one drain, one Levi.

…

He hasn’t given up. Not yet. Every once in a while, when he’s able to talk himself up, and Armin’s away at clinical hours, he’ll try to get out. Only, Armin’s been thorough in removing anything that might be useful to escaping. So, he can do little more than scratch at the links and worry over the groove he made. 

It’s futile, but he can’t help himself. Because, if he could just slip the chain or make it to the upstairs, there must be a chance that he can be rescued. There had to be a phone upstairs. Or a neighbor's house he could run to.

All wonderful daydreams. If only Levi wasn’t bolted to the fucking wall in the belly of the house.

Tapping his lips with his fingertips rhythmically, he sighs, tired, and considers washing again. Just to pass the time. He’s long since accepted that he’ll never feel clean no matter how often or how thorough it is, but he still appreciates scrubbing the cloth over his body. 

Levi tries to stay at least a version of clean and tries to keep his surroundings somewhat tidy. Every few days or so, Armin comes down and leashes him in The Pink Nest, while scrubbing down Levi’s corner with soap, a mop, and bleach. Levi appreciates it. His hands almost itch to do it himself, but he also doesn’t want to help the omega in anything he does. He won’t care for his own cage. Served Armin right to have to clean up after him.

His resentment for Armin grows every day, festering. It’s a constant battle to not snap at the omega or scream or yell or fight back. But he endures. Because Armin. Always. Wins. 

Levi’s been beaten and bloodied enough time to have learned that. And if he learned anything from growing up with Kenny, it’s when to shut his mouth, put his head down, and survive. 

That’s what he’s doing, he reminds himself. It’s survival.

An ugly voice in the back of his mind always whispers that he’s being too compliant, that he isn’t fighting hard enough, that he’s letting Armin touch him and —

Giving a shake of his head, Levi cinches his collar tight, cutting off his windpipe and holds it. Immediately, his head goes calm, and at last, he can close his eyes and listen to his blood rush through his head with each heartbeat. When he lets it go — when he simply can’t bear it anymore — he sucks in a huge, gasping breath, and his body feels all floaty and numb. The bad voices are silent and Levi can just be. 

Sighing heavily through his nose, he slumps against the wall and gazes longingly at The Pink Nest. 

It is so soft. And warm.

Sometimes, when Levi is good, he’s let off the choke chain and they can fuck on the comfy mattress. Much better than having to endure with the cold concrete scratching up his back or knees. If he’s even better at pleasing Armin, he’s allowed to sleep there for the night too, though heavily bogged down with restraints on his wrists and ankles.

His time there is sparse, but he cherishes it. The one little sliver of normalcy he can get down here. Armin always washes the bedding every time after they’re done fucking, so Levi can always guarantee the blankets and pillows are fresh and clean every time he’s allowed back over there. Their cleanliness tempts him the most, just out of reach of his dingy little corner.

It’s such a small thing, but honest-to-god, Levi doesn’t have much to look forward to anymore. If allowing Armin to ride him or suck him off gets him a few hours of normalcy before he’s chained back to hard concrete, he’ll take it. No matter how much his skin crawls and his stomach hurts afterwards. 

In the grand scheme of things, it’s only a small vice Levi has to endure to make it another day down here.

Part of Levi hopes that Armin will have enough energy to fuck tonight when he gets home. He’d like to sleep in the nest again. But, Armin tends to be dead tired when he comes back from long days of labs and tests. Sometimes, he only drags himself down to the basement just to ensure Levi’s still alive and secured, then fills Levi’s water bucket back up, and that’ll be it. At least the omega is diligent about caring for him in the mornings. Levi is guaranteed his pill and a small portion of breakfast. 

The hunger gnawing at his belly has become just as familiar as the choking fear in his throat when the dark comes. 

Not often, but enough times — when Levi has been bad — Armin will flick off the lights as he leaves. No matter how much Levi screams or pleads, he’ll be left in the dark for hours, days, until Armin feels nice enough to come back down and turn them on again. 

Shuddering, Levi curls up tight and hugs his legs close. When Armin comes down, he’ll be on his best behavior. He’ll get dinner, a night in The Pink Nest, and Armin will leave the lights on. That would be a ‘good day’ in Basement standards.

Not long later, Armin indeed comes home. Levi hates the way he perks up at the subtle pad of feet overhead. Though Armin is violent and unpredictable, he has been the only face Levi has seen in months. His only source of human interaction.

Armin means food, water, and a clean nest.

Strangely enough, it takes a while for Armin to come down tonight. Levi can hear him moving around, so he knows he’s still awake, but his footsteps remain concentrated in the spot of the house that Levi has determined to be the kitchen. Levi’s mouth waters when he thinks about smelling food cooking. Even that small, miniscule aspect of his life has been taken from him. 

He just hopes Armin brings it down while it’s still hot.

After some time, footsteps finally patter closer; floorboards creak in the familiar pattern until the basement door is jiggled open. At the top of the stairs, Levi hears Armin muttering, then rattling. Still fumbling with the door, Armin manages to squeeze his way in with a large wooden tray. Levi perks up at the achingly familiar sight in the omega’s hands. This is new. A good new. Excitement floods through him.

He hopes that is what he thinks it is.

Armin proudly saunters down the steps, a beaming smile on his face as he takes in the alpha’s attentiveness. “Hi Levi~”

Levi flares his nostrils to catch a scent. Steam coils up from the spout of the tea pot. Something floral and sweet. Two delicate looking tea cups are settled on one corner and–

Is that cake?

Levi licks his lips. Drool gathers in his mouth and he isn’t sure what part of it all he’s most excited about. Tea. Cake. Warm tea! Actual cake!

He’s going to be on his best behavior. He can’t fuck this up. There is a want inside of him that engulfs his whole body. 

Voice cracking from disuse, Levi hushes out, “Hi, Armin.”

Armin likes it when he greets him. He likes when Levi talks to him like he used too - Before.

The omega’s smile only grows sunnier and he beams at Levi before turning and casually grabbing the prod from where it’s leaned up against the wall. Levi’s stomach drops a bit at the action, but it’s a common factor in any of Armin’s visits. He doesn’t always use it. Not unless Levi does something he doesn’t like. All Levi has to do is please Armin, and nothing bad will happen.

It looks like the omega has dressed up a bit; instead of his usual scrubs or sweatpants, he has on a nice shirt - a baby blue one that brings out his eyes, and dark pants. His feathery hair has grown a bit longer since Levi’s been here, now swooping softly across the omega’s forehead in wispy bangs. In any other situation, Levi would say he looks handsome. The omega comes to a halt just out of reach of Levi’s chain, kneeling to set the tray down. 

The offer of fresh tea is too tempting to even think of turning his nose up at. Not even with the underlying threat of the cattle prod at Armin’s side. Levi’s chain scuffles against the floor as he creeps away from the wall. He joins Armin at the tray, copying his cross-legged stance. 

“What this for?” He dares to ask. “Special occasion?”

Armin scoffs a laugh, rolling his eyes fondly. “Of course! Probably the most special occasion ever. It’s our anniversary!”

Immediately, Levi freezes, hand half way extended to reach for a cup. Slowly, he snakes it back to his lap, suddenly feeling sick. He swallows hard. 

Don’t do this, he begs internally. Don’t sully the one thing I have.

He doesn’t want an anniversary tied to something like this. Tea is his thing. Not Armin’s. And certainly not something for them to share. Armin picks up on his hesitation. 

“I know alphas aren’t great about keeping track of this stuff,” he says softly, a genuine smile in his eyes. “But… I was feeling sentimental. Today marks the day we first met: one year ago.”

A year. Armin has only been in his life for a year, and managed to do all of this. He made Levi’s work near miserable. He abducted him. Abused him. In only the span of 12 months. 

Armin carries on as usual, “So, I got us something nice to share. Just you and me.” He picks up the pot and pours them both a cup. Light brown, steaming liquid sloshes into the little ceramic cups. A delicate floral pattern decorates the rim of the cup. Pink. The aroma hits Levi’s nose and his heart aches while simultaneously picking up in excitement. It’s chamomile tea, one of his favorites.

Before, he used to drink a cup on nights where the eyes felt particularly judgmental, or he was having trouble sleeping.

Once the cup is full, Armin offers it up, an expectant look in his eyes and a soft smile on his face. The urge to splash the scalding liquid in his face or smash the cup against the ground briefly crosses Levi’s mind, but he shakes it off just as quickly. It’s been months since he’s had anything other than water. He’s pretty sure he’s gone through a tea withdrawal at some point and just didn’t notice under all the other shit that’s been going on. 

Heat warms Levi’s palm as he delicately plucks the cup from the omega’s hands. Armin says nothing at the peculiar way the alpha holds the rim, only looking mildly thoughtful. Levi’s eyes narrow when the omega copies him to grab his own, sipping between his thumb and forefinger. 

The blatant imitation makes his blood boil, so he sips his drink to quell the anger, eyes dark.

It only occurs to him after he’s taken his first swallow that Armin could have drugged it again, but quickly dismisses it when he remembers he watched Armin pour the tea, then sip from his own. With that in mind, Levi allows himself to relax, and actually attempts to enjoy his small gift. The tea is hot down his throat, but Levi doesn’t mind the mild scalding at all. After months of cold, the tea fills him from the inside out, hot in his belly and warming his insides. He hums softly in approval. 

It’s not the best cup of tea he’s ever had in the world, but at the same time… it is. A sorely missed luxury from Before.

For once, Armin lets them sit in silence, sipping their tea quietly. His eyes glitter in a way that lets Levi know that this night is far from over. He supposes he wouldn’t mind a night in The Pink Nest, especially now that he’s been placated with tea. 

Tea. Cake. A warm nest…

Speaking of cake, Levi’s eyes drift down to the single slice periodically, drawn to it. It looks like sponge cake, with cream filling, and a dusting of cocoa powder at the top. Just like one of the kinds Levi’s cafe used to serve. There was always a rotation of seasonal sweets available at the counter, and when the fall season came and the owner added Levi’s favorite back, he always swiped a piece during his break to enjoy. 

Of all the cookies, muffins, scones, and pastries they offered, that sponge cake was his favorite.

Levi wonders if this is the real thing. Armin does seem like the morbid type to continue to visit his old stomping grounds — haunt his booth like he always did and pretend to wait for Levi to show back up like he wasn’t the one fucking responsible for his absence in the first place. The alpha would not be surprised at all if Armin still kept up the façade of a lovestruck, overworked, college student, studying in the cafe all day.

After Levi’s eyed the piece of cake for the thousandth time, Armin chuckles. 

“Are you excited I got your favorites?” he muses. “I was so happy when I saw the sponge cake was back on the menu — it’s perfect timing!”

Pointedly, Levi looks away, and drains the last of his tea. “Yeah,” he mutters. “Thanks.”

Armin takes his curt answer in stride. He picks up the spoon and scoops up a bite. Fluffy cake, airy, soft filling, and sweet cocoa powder. Levi’s mouth waters. 

Instead of offering Levi the bite like he’s always done, Armin spoons it into his own mouth with a smirk, and Levi’s heart falls. 

“It’s my favorite, too,” Armin offers. His eyes have that look to them; the kind that lets Levi know to tread carefully. He’s scheming behind those baby blues. “I used to be more of a blueberry scone sort of guy, but when I saw how much you enjoyed it, I had to try some for myself!”

Subconsciously, Levi leans forward, chasing after the temptation of soft sponge cake, but the warning cinch of metal teeth at his throat has him retreating with a hard swallow.

Armin takes another bite, savoring the sweet dessert, while Levi watches on hungrily. Breakfast was forever ago. Bland, cold egg and a rice cake. He’s been hollow for hours.

Armin swallows pointedly. “I must say, I definitely found my new favorite.”

Levi says nothing, face impassive. This feels like a test. Armin wants something from him: a reaction, perhaps.

Levi watches as another bite disappears into Armin’s mouth. Then another. Soon, half the cake is gone, and Levi fears he might not get any at all. Would Armin really do that? Bring Levi’s favorite treat down and eat it in front of him? On their ‘Anniversary’?

Just when the subtle taunting starts to feel like it’s too much and Levi opens his mouth to ask– Armin cuts him off.

“Here, baby.” He offers a bite out to the alpha. “Have some.” Saliva pools in Levi’s mouth and he stares longingly at it. Armin’s being mean. He’s holding it just outside of the comfortable tether line of Levi’s chain. If he truly wants this bite, he’ll have to strain his neck against the chain. 

Armin knows this. 

He watches Levi’s face, transfixed, a small quirk to the side of his mouth. He’s entertained.

Part of Levi says it’s not worth debasing himself. The other isn’t as noble. He’s become pliable in the many hours down here in the dark. Choking himself for a moment just to get a bite of cake doesn’t seem so bad. Low risk, high reward.

The spoon is just in front of him. Stretching forward, the chain starts to prick into his neck threateningly as it lifts from the ground, just starting to squeeze under the pressure. Armin doesn’t move the spoon any closer, watching as Levi strains against the weight of the chain. The pressure around his throat makes him want to cough, but he leans forward anyway, opening his mouth in hopes that Armin will tilt it forward and spoon it in. 

He doesn’t. 

The cake is just out of reach, so close, Levi can smell the buttery sweet cake and light creme of the filling. Gurgling slightly in his throat, his hand lifts from his side for just a moment — attempting to reach for Armin’s wrist and pull it closer, but the omega’s free hand flies down to the prod at his side. The warning is received well and clear, and Levi obediently puts his hand back down. 

Metal digs into his bruised, abused trachea, and he chokes himself forward one last time, eyes squeezing shut, and feels his lips close around his prize.

Rearing back, he curls in on himself, turning away from Armin, holding the bite in his mouth. He lets his chest heave for air and fights against the tickling sensation annoying the back of his throat. One hand cupping his full mouth, he coughs and coughs, feeling tears wet the corners of his eyes as his throat spasms. 

After the fit has passed, he chews slowly, savoring the texture of the sponge and the mousse-like filling. The cake is light as air in his mouth and so, so sweet. Levi mourns even having to swallow the small bite, but the sugary aftertaste lingers on his tongue well after.

When he turns back, Armin watching him feels like an invasion of privacy. Out of all things, he hates him looking at him enjoying something. Because Levi knows he’ll just use the information for later. He’s already done it.

Armin simply scoops up another bite and holds it out again. “Ready for more?” He asks sweetly. 

Rubbing his sore throat, Levi swallows the last taste of cake, then leans forward and opens his mouth.

Notes:

Until next Wednesday! 😈💜

Chapter 9

Notes:

*rubs hands together menacingly*

They’re tangled together in a mess of limbs in The Pink Nest. Armin has his legs locked over Levi’s keeping the alpha inside of him while they catch their breath. His head rests sweetly on the alpha’s heaving chest. 

What little energy he had earlier is sapped. After multiple rounds, he’s more than spent.

Once wrangling Levi in a muzzle and wrist binds, and ushering him into The Pink Nest, Armin had crawled between his legs, giggling that since it was a special occasion, he was going to treat Levi. He’d sucked him off in a way that the alpha could do little more than stare catatonically at the ceiling as he was pleasured against his will. 

Two more rounds of sex later — all ending with Armin riding him until he knotted — and Levi is exhausted. His eyelids fight to stay open. 

Falling asleep in front of Armin is still hard. Especially when the little creep is curled up directly on top of him. Every boney joint sticks into Levi’s sides. The constant underlying threat keeps his body wired into overdrive, constantly on edge, waiting for any turn in Armin’s mood. Anytime he feels himself slipping off, Levi jerks awake, miserably tired and alert at the same time. The constant, threatening presence of the omega makes relaxation impossible. 

 It’s as comfortable as cuddling with a taipan.

Levi supposes the few corrective jabs with the cattle prod earlier would do that to a person; when he’d tried to push Armin away nearing the third round, he’d been swiftly disciplined. Months of little to no food, no sunlight, and no exercise have caused the muscle and fat to wither away on his very body. 

Not that he likes to admit it, but Armin is stronger than him. He’s simply healthier — well fed and socialized. Determined to keep Levi down here as well. That in itself is a hell of a drug. There is little Armin cannot do when he puts that brain of his to work.

Armin huffs a laugh and pets over his chest, soothing it, before circling one of Levi’s nipples teasingly. 

“Good?” He asks coyly, gazing up at Levi from under his lashes.

Levi remains mute, staring up at the raw, unfinished ceiling. Beneath his eyes feels bruised. They’re most certainly are ugly bags, but it’s not like he’s seen himself in a mirror in over three months to know that.

He just wants to sleep in the nest. After all of that, he’s earned it, right?

Armin’s palm rubs up and down his side, making Levi tense. As expected, the omega sits up, playfully kissing at his neck. In the warm confines of Armin’s body, Levi’s cock twitches nauseatingly. No. He doesn’t want to go again. Hasn’t he done enough? Isn’t Armin satisfied yet? 

Soft lips press kiss after kiss over his already bruised throat. Armin is a possessive lover. Levi’s neck aches with marks old and new. Each kiss creeps higher and higher on his throat, until teeth gently scrape his muzzle, making Levi jump. Armin laughs breathily, sounding nearly knot-drunk, and places a final, slow kiss over Levi’s leather-clad lips.

The whole time, Levi stares up into Armin’s eyes. The omega looks every bit the wooed omega, happy and in love. Truly, there is no care to Levi’s consent in all of this. The firm press of leather against his lips is the same as any other kiss in the omega’s book.

When Armin pulls away, smiling softly in a hazy, fucked out way, Levi’s stomach swoops with nerves. The omega’s blond head dips down again. This time, his warm lips connect lower, near the base of Levi’s throat — right over his mating gland. A violent jolt goes through Levi as the sensitive spot it brushed. Those warm lips open to let a hot wet tongue dip out, swiping over him and making Levi moan. His heartbeat races, every nerve tingling with a sick sort of anticipation, limbs buzzing. Armin opens his mouth, places his teeth over the thin skin and–

An abrupt, insistent buzzing fills the basement, making them both jump. Armin rears back on Levi’s lap, swinging around to glare murderously towards the culprit, and Levi is able to shakily breathe beneath him. The medical bag Armin always brings down with him seems to house the distraction.

Growling under his breath, Armin looks apologetically over at Levi.

“I’ll be just a moment, my love.”

With a soft grunt, he abruptly stands from The Pink Nest; Levi’s cock pops out of him with a lewd sound and bile rises in the alpha’s throat.

Armin pads over to the table, unbothered by the semen trickling from between his legs and running down his thighs. To Levi, the sight is horrendous. He struggles to keep his tea and cake down. He did that. That’s his cum on Armin’s thighs. He was inside him. He came. He’s sick in the head, because how can he have sex with some like Armin? How can he cum?

While Levi silently loses his mind in the nest, Armin pulls out a cell phone from the bag and checks the screen. He’s quiet for a long moment, eyes dancing over the notifications. Then his gaze darkens, and his entire stature changes, like a switch is flipped.

For the first time, when Armin turns back to him, the omega looks unsettled. He abruptly strides back to The Pink Nest whilst Levi looks on, bewildered. Cruel hands snatch his collar in a fist and he nearly drags Levi by the throat from the soft nest. Yelping and wheezing, Levi thrashes, too caught off guard to think about the repercussions of fighting against Armin. 

He lands with a thump on the cold concrete, cowering under Armin’s hands. This isn’t how this is supposed to go! Levi did all the things right. He was supposed to be allowed to sleep in the nest! He doesn’t know what went wrong.

Huffing out a breath, Armin fumbles to get a hold on Levi, hooking his hands under his armpits and dragging his dead weight over to the chain. Levi’s thin, boney legs scrabble against the floor, whimpering in the back of his throat. What was going on? What had changed in Armin’s mind?

“Sorry, baby,” Armin mutters, tugging him along. “I’m in a bit of a rush, but I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

He dumps Levi back in his corner and hastily puts the chain back on. He doesn’t even pause to take Levi’s muzzle and restraints off, turning and dashing up the steps in hurry. At the top of the stairs, the door slams, and all Levi can do is look up at it, shell-shocked. 

Everything happened so fast.

He doesn’t like that. That wasn’t how this was supposed to go. Armin was supposed to be happy. Levi was supposed to sleep in a warm, soft nest tonight. If not, all of that was for nothing! He let Armin fuck him and came inside the omega for… for what?!

Rocking himself, Levi whimpers. It’s a muffled sound through his muzzle and he’s reminded again of his wrist restraints. Slight panic bubbles in his throat. He hopes Armin comes back soon. What if he needs a drink of water? What if something happens and Levi needs his hands?

The muzzle is suffocating enough on its own, but to be chained with it is anxiety inducing. Overhead, Armin’s footsteps stomp over the ceiling, hurried. Armin’s panic makes Levi panic because the omega is never like this. What was going on? 

As he listens, ears strained to pick up on any sound possible, Levi idly twists his wrists in front of him, feeling the sturdy leather chafe over the skin. His breaths are hot and stifling inside of the muzzle and his heart starts to thud unsteadily against his ribs. His anxiety grows the longer he hears Armin stomping around upstairs like a cat with its tail on fire. 

Armin doesn’t get like this. He’s careful and methodical; never one to be caught off guard. The one time Levi ever got him by surprise was when the omega had tried to induce them. Even now, Armin was still so careful about being around him with some form of protection. Whether that be restraints, drugs, or weapons, he was certain to have some sort of leverage over Levi. 

The worst part is… Levi isn’t even sure if Armin still needs them. Fighting back against Armin is a losing battle. Levi may not know what he looks like, but he can see how thin he’s gotten from just his arms, legs, and torso. What muscle he had has surely wasted away by now. Though he loathes to admit it… Armin might be stronger than him now. 

The omega was sturdy. On more than one occasion, Levi has felt his muscles ripple as he hauls Levi’s dead weight around. Looks could be deceiving and Armin was no exception. The omega may look angelic and delicate to some, but under those scrubs and baby blues, he was scary. 

Above him, the front door to the house opens with a whine — hinges needing to be oiled — then closes with a forceful slam. Levi feels dreadful. Armin left him alone in the house while he’s still muzzled? But what if he suffocates?!

It’s probably unlikely to even be able to do that, but his panicked mind won’t accept reason.

Shuffling himself back up against the wall, Levi reaches up behind himself for his collar, needing to feel calm again. His heart rate won’t go down and things have gone eerily silent upstairs. It’s unsettling. 

Fingers grasp metal loops, feeling behind until they bump into the main chain at the back. He pulls at it to cinch his collar tight. He needs to feel that pressure around his throat and make his brain stop for just a moment. 

As he pulls it, the chain doesn’t go taut. Instead, it keeps giving. Something heavy and metal drops off the back, hitting him over the scapula, then clangs to the floor. The rest of the collar goes slack, pooling around Levi’s clavicles, and he freezes. The lock that usually secures the chain to the prong collar, keeping it pulled tight, lays popped open on the floor beside him. It’s completely unmarked. Nothing is wrong with it.

Armin… he didn’t put it back on right.

Levi’s hand is still poised by his neck and he gingerly touches the palm to his bare throat. 

It’s gone.

His collar — it’s gone. 

He’s free.

 

---

 

For as many times as Levi has sat there and day dreamed about this exact scenario, imagining how he would instantly bolt for the door and go screaming for the hills, that doesn’t happen. Not exactly. 

Instead, it’s not fair what he feels. Because he feels cheated. Now, more than ever, he needs the collar. He can’t stand what he’s feeling. He can’t cope. What is he supposed to do, now that he doesn’t have his collar and he can’t get that calm, floaty feeling?

Instead of running for his life, he sits there on the cold concrete, unsure of what to do next. 

The Basement is all he’s known for months. He’s been confined to a 5-foot radius with nothing but his own thoughts and Armin for so long. And now… he’s supposed to leave? By himself?

…

Yes.

Mentally shaking himself, Levi gasps quietly. What was he thinking? He’s free. He needs to run. This is his chance. Who knew when he’d get another. If he’d get another. 

Quickly, he scrambles to his feet. The chain is still clipped to the loose collar, but it doesn’t bite at his throat like it used to. He fumbles behind his head and unclips it; the chain clatters to the ground noisily, making Levi wince. He whips his head up to the top of the stairs, expecting Armin to be there immediately, ripping open the wooden door, golf club already in hand. 

But he doesn’t. 

For once, Levi stands without anything weighing him down, tethering him. He feels weightless. And — when he peels the loop of the prong collar over his head — unsure of himself. 

Truly, without his collar, he feels naked. More naked than he is now: unclothed. It just– it feels so weird. It’s so wrong. 

One hand still softly cupping his throat, unable to believe that he’s actually free, Levi tiptoes to the end of the chain’s end. Where he’s been tethered for months by a cruel collar and even crueler hand. Stepping over that line feels momentous. He’s never been this far from the wall. 

The stairs loom threateningly before him. What’s at the top? Where does he go from here? How will he find help?

And Levi realizes, with startlingly hopeful determination — there’s only one way to find out.

Placing a foot on the worn, age-polished wood, he takes the first step up.

Notes:

And this is where I leave you until next week ;)

Thank you for reading this far! More to come 👀

Chapter 10

Notes:

Levi has a lil “man or bear?” moment in this chapter ;)

Poor baby is a little overwhelmed with all these choices he now has. Free will… what’s that?

On the other side of the door, all is quiet. Levi has his ear pressed up against the cold wood, listening, scarcely daring to breathe. Wherever Armin was in the house before, he’s gone now. There’s nothing but silence on the other side. 

Levi hasn’t heard the front door open again and his skin still prickles with a sick anticipation. There’s no telling how much time he has, but he can’t just run head first into this. What if Armin comes right back? Running into Armin is a nightmare come to life. Trying to escape left him beaten and bloody; he doesn’t want to imagine what actually escaping would earn him if he was caught.

Another factor causes him to pause: Levi’s still stark naked as the day he was born, save the muzzle and wrist restraints, but there isn’t much he can do about that right now. Escaping is the priority. Still, bolting with his knob out is humiliating on top of humiliating.

Taking a deep breath, Levi pushes all of those frivolous thoughts out of his head. This is escape: the most important thing. Nothing topped this. Not even pride.

The old brass knob is cold in his palm. Awkwardly, with his hands still cinched together in front of him, he twists it, ears pricked for any sort of noise. The heavy door groans as he pushes it open, and he’s met with a narrow hallway that extends to his left. For his first view of Outside, it’s quite unremarkable. Though Levi wouldn’t say it’s bad either. It’s a bare passage with tan painted walls and dark wood trim. There’s no decor or windows, but there is a warm glowing ceiling light above and visible outlines of where old picture frames used to hang like phantoms.

Carefully, Levi slips through the doorway, feet brushing over worn wood. It’s an old home, he determines; the floorboards worn down through decades of wear and cobwebs and dust in the corners. To the left at the fork where the hallway ends, there’s more lamplight. Shadows stretch across the wall, so he can assume it’s a larger room. A living room, perhaps. Most likely, leading to the front door — to Armin.

With only one way to go, Levi quickly pads down the hall, feeling like his heart might thud out of his chest. Doing this… going against Armin’s wishes — it grates so horrendously on Levi’s nerves. The fear of being caught is far greater knowing what Armin would do to him if he found out. That omega was not well. He wasn’t right in the head. If he caught Levi trying to escape, there would be no rational response from him. Levi isn’t even sure if it would be worth the breath to beg for mercy. 

But the promise of freedom, dangled so close in front of him — when he’s finally out of the Basement — is just enough to push past his fear of the omega. 

He peers around a corner, and is surprised to come face-to-face with a homey, lived-in kitchen. The decor is that of an elderly farmer — copper pans hung on the wall, checkered curtains at the window, and a sturdy, but plain, wooden breakfast table. 

Outside the window, the sky is dark. It must be late. Tall trees crop across the indigo sky. Levi knows that Armin’s days are long with his busy schedule, but it’s still surprising to see a cycle of the day with his own two eyes. It’s just been the Basement for so long. An ache takes his heart to think of all the other mundane things he’s missed out on life.

The trees concern him. He still has no idea where exactly Armin has taken him. It’s his house, that’s one thing for sure, and he lives alone in it. There have only been enough footsteps for it to be one person above him. But if Armin lives alone in the middle of the woods, Levi is fucked. Running out into the unknown is a daunting idea, especially hobbled as he is. Anything is better than the Basement, but still, being confronted with a hungry bear in his state would be an unpleasant end to say the least. 

Levi pauses. Armin or bear?

His eyes slide over to the ajar basement door and narrow. The chain. The hunger. The humiliation.

Bear.

With that thought in mind, he strides through the kitchen in a hurry. Armin went out the front. On the furthest wall, there’s a backdoor, the slatted blinds shut tight. He wants no possible chance of running into the little psycho.

Just as he reaches for the handle and twists it, pushing hard with all his weight to find the old door jammed — possibly waterlogged to hell and swollen shut with bloat — the sound of the front door opening has every muscle within him locking up with fear. It’s indescribable how it crawls along his spine and flays every nerve with sheer panic. Armin is back.

And there’s no way out except through the omega himself.

“Bye!” Armin’s cheerful voice rings out throughout the house. Far too friendly and far too innocent for the monster that he is. “See you on Monday!”

Calling out to a visitor. A stranger. Most likely, the very thing that ruffled Armin earlier. An unplanned, unsuspecting visitor that Armin felt the need to hide Levi from.

Just like that, the plan changes in Levi’s head. This is his chance. He has to be seen by whoever this is. Even if he can just get a glimpse of the person, maybe they’ll recognize him as a missing person. At the least, they’ll be intrigued and question Armin on it, because the omega supposedly lives here alone — right? He just needs to be seen! 

Better yet, maybe the person will take one look at him, naked and bound and looking straight from some sick European dungeon porno, and call the cops. Or take him with them. 

Head filled with hopes and dreams, he spins on heel and scrambles for the front door, following the sound. Faintly, he can hear a car door slam. 

Through the kitchen entryway he sprints, tearing through what appears to be the living room, dodging around old flowery grandma-couches and end tables, just as Armin steps over the threshold, still waving distractedly at Levi’s potential savior. As the omega turns around, eyes widening in sheer surprise, they practically collide with a violent crash. Armin goes tumbling to the ground and Levi stumbles, off-balance without his hands. He manages to steady himself with a shoulder against the front door, accidentally clicking it shut with his weight, but Armin is already recovering, trying to grab at his ankles from the floor. Nails shred at his skin and Levi nearly trips over himself trying to get away.

He can hear tires crunching over gravel and a car engine purring just on the other side.

“Levi! Levi! No!” Armin shrieks, sounding utterly frantic, scrambling for him. “Don’t do this! No!”

His tone sends shivers down Levi’s spine. That level of distraught should only be reserved for mothers trying to find their lost pups, not insane kidnappers afraid their captive will get away. Not thinking about anything other than escape or the repercussions of his actions. Levi kicks him in the face. Hard.

Howling, the omega goes down, clutching his nose. Red blood goes everywhere. A sick sense of satisfaction goes through Levi at the similarities to the injury he sustained before at the hand of the omega. He only allows a brief millisecond of gloating before throwing open the door and stumbling out into the night air.

Clumsily, he takes the sagging wooden porch steps three at a time and leaps onto the twiggy, rocky grass and runs for his life. The brilliant, cherry-red sports car that could fix everything in Levi’s life is already down the gravel driveway of the utterly pitch-black road, practically throwing up gravel behind it. 

Fuck, Armin really did live in the boondocks, huh? Not even a lone street pole to illuminate the winding dirt road.

Music blaring, the car careens down the drive, oblivious to Levi behind them, chasing after it.

It occurs to Levi as he tears down the drive after this shrinking car in the distance, screams muffled behind his heavy leather muzzle — rocks and sticks slicing into his feet until he’s forced to limp… that maybe he wasn’t meant to escape this place. 

And — as the car roars on, disappearing and taking its yellow headlights with it, shitty bass music blaring through the speakers — that he might never leave for the rest of his life. However short or long Armin decides that will be.

It’s no use. They didn’t see him. Levi doesn’t even see a flash of brake lights once. Either the driver was too stupid and bull-headed to be cautious on such a rural backroad or they did see and just wanted to get the hell away from the crazy naked man running after him. 

Defeated, Levi slows, legs trembling violently from strain and pain after months of no use. His steps trail off until he’s standing alone in the middle of this dirt road with no plan on what to do now. 

His feet sting like knives and throb with every step. Tiny cuts cover almost his entire legs and his soles have been scratched to shreds. Again, the idea that he might suffocate comes to mind as his chest heaves violently, trying to draw in gasps of air, winded from his sprinting. Only hot, limited air is drawn into his lungs from behind the muzzle. Little black spots dance on the corners of his vision and just as quickly as the adrenaline came, it fades.

Exhaustion comes on quickly — the full body wind where everything hurts and he’s suddenly so tired. 

Sinking down to his knees in the gravel, uncaring as it digs into his boney kneecaps, Levi stares down the dark, empty road. Utterly hopeless. He could keep running. The thought briefly crosses his mind, but he’s still sucking in stale, stuffy air that doesn’t quite satisfy him and his legs tremble from exertion. 

He could run. But where to? To who? Would he even find help before he starved to death or the elements took him? The air was frosty with the biting cold. It must be autumn. 

Far behind him, he hears the front door bang open with a tumultuous force. 

He could run, but what would be the point? Armin always wins. Even if Levi got lost in these woods, desperate and panicked, Armin would find him. He’s sure of it. The rubber soles of shoes crunch over the ground frantically behind him, and Levi doesn’t even bother looking back, tired, leaking eyes trained on the empty road ahead of him. 

When Armin jams the cattle prod into his nape, filling his body with electricity, it feels deserved.

 

---

 

Though it’s useless, Levi sobs behind his muzzle. It’s an unstoppable thing bubbling up from his throat. Sheer panic and distress. The air is sour with his scent, acrid and bitter. His pleas for mercy go ignored by the omega. Armin drags him back to the house by the scruff, uncaring if Levi’s skin snags and tears on the harsh, rocky drive. 

Nobody enjoys it, that’s for sure.

Armin cusses under his breath and grunts with the strain as he manhandles Levi’s squirming, shaking form, while Levi frantically cries, pathetic, and makes it that much worse for himself by fighting. Perhaps it was human nature to keep chasing that hope. Sure, he didn’t want to run off into the woods by himself, but he will also not willingly go back down into the Basement. He wants to keep hearing the crickets chirping and see the night sky. He wants to see something other than those 4 concrete walls and endless junk. He wants the nip of cold to be from the outside air, felt when bundled up in a warm jacket, rather than when laying on literal stone, shivering for the remainder of his life.

Levi flails around as Armin lugs him through the house. He latches onto doorframes and furniture, trying vainly to hold himself in place and not go back down into the darkness. Paint scrapes off under his nails from the trim and the couch groans along with them until Armin slaps his hands away.

It’s useless. As all other things are in the Basement.

When Armin drags him down the steps, he’s not kind about it. He lets Levi’s body thump along each board; his fingers never waver from the cruel grip he has on Levi’s nape. 

At the bottom, he snatches the prong collar from where Levi discarded it, utterly furious in his actions, and wrangles it over his head without a word. This time, the omega makes sure the lock snicks and jerks it harshly, making Levi choke and gag as the collar cinches tight. He throws Levi down to his corner and the alpha curls up against the wall shaking. 

“Mmmm —” Levi strains behind the muzzle, holding his bound hands up in front of his face like that might save him. “Arrr, eeeass.”

Armin straightens up, towering over him, looking utterly insane. Dark blood is smeared beneath his nose and has dried over his chin in streaks. His eyes flash in the dim basement lighting, backlit by the naked bulb on the ceiling. He looks insane. A devil.

“Hush.” Is all he says, leaving nothing to argue. 

With one last look at Levi’s sniveling form that lets the alpha know that they’re far from finished, the omega turns on heel and stomps up the stairs, slamming the door behind him.

The lights go off and Levi cries until his eyes are puffy and swollen and screams until he’s hoarse. It’s soul crushing — to taste the outside air and see the stars, only to end up back down here. Left to cower and tremble in the dark; wondering when the ax will fall is just as bad as if Armin had hit him. It’s the waiting that’s killing him.

It’s a long time before the light comes back on. Despite knowing Armin will be fuming mad still, and punishment only awaits, Levi grovels at the end of his chain, eyes pleading. He doesn’t want Armin to turn the light off again. He wants to be free again. He doesn’t want Armin to be upset with him anymore, because when Armin’s upset, Levi pays dearly.

Armin — his keeper; the person who decides whether he lives or dies — descends the steps. He’s still angry, that much is true. He has his hands in his pockets and a blank expression on his face as he surveys Levi’s pathetic situation. Those pretty blue eyes have never been so cold. 

Hiccupping under his muzzle, Levi sniffles loudly. His eyes are still wet and leaking.

When Armin reaches the bottom, his slim fingers curl around the grip of the bloodied golf club propped up next to the prod, and Levi’s blood curdles in his veins.

“Finished with your little tantrum?” He asks humorlessly. His tone is harsh and unimpressed. Along with his words, he hefts the cruel instrument in his hands, testing its weight. Immediately, Levi nods, head bobbling on his neck. He dares not take his eyes off the omega. He needs to make things right with the Armin. He needs to be good. The punishment will be so, so bad if not. 

The omega looks so disappointed in him, staring down the end of his once-perfect nose. The blood has been dabbed away and a little bandage placed across the semi-crooked bridge. Part of Levi wonders if he ever considered Levi in this way — if his delusions ever allowed him to be human in his eyes. He almost fears Armin is repulsed by his pitifulness. 

What will become of him if Armin loses his interest? Though daydreams are nice, there is no possible chance that Armin would ever just release him. They both know he would go straight to the authorities.

Even if he didn’t, Levi’s a missing person. There would be questions.

And oh boy, would Levi have answers. No one would have to twist his arm to get him to talk. And he knows Armin knows that too.

At once, the sobering understanding that he must never lose Armin’s infatuation comes to life. He exists only because Armin wants him to. Because Armin still needs him. 

As Armin makes to unclasp Levi’s muzzle, he knows he must play his cards carefully. Whatever it takes to survive until he can attempt again — when he’s better prepared and has a plan. 

This chance just fell into his lap and he wasn’t ready at all; That can never happen again. 

Warily, Levi eyes the club as it’s brought close to him, but Armin doesn’t make a move to use it on him yet. The sticky leather slips free of his face and Levi sucks in a deep, shuddering breath of stale basement air. It’s been a long night. His eyes are raw and his head pounds from dehydration and lack of sleep. Silently, Armin draws away, hand on his hip with the muzzle clenched in his fist.

“You ran,” he states. Though his words are cool and factual, Levi knows he is livid. Swallowing, Levi thinks quickly. 

Licking his lips, he parts his cracked, dry lips, and hoarsely starts with, “I’m sorry.” 

“How did you get out?”

Something tells Levi not to tell the truth. Surely, alerting Armin of his mistake would ensure the omega never cut corners again. Meaning there would never be another opportunity like this one. And it was starting to seem that the only way to escape this hell might only be through an act of Armin himself. 

For months, Levi’s tried to pull the chain free of the wall, scratch his nails at the lock, and scour for anything useful to get himself free.

If Levi was ever going to leave this place, it would have to involve Armin. 

Parting his cracked lips, Levi whispers, “I picked the lock.”

“Liar.”

“I did!” At the flash in Armin’s eyes, Levi ducks his head and repeats softer, “I did.”

“With what?”

To this, Levi has no answer, so he remains quiet. Just like that, the lie unfolds. 

Time for a different tactic.

Armin says nothing as well, staring down at him in an unnerving silence, waiting for the truth. Levi tries again, stumbling over his sentences, trying to find the right combination that will soothe Armin’s anger. 

“I didn’t think — I didn’t mean to run. Or hurt you. I was just so overwhelmed being upstairs. I wanted to be outside. It’s been so long…”

The silence stretches on. Levi wracks his brain for something else to say, something that will diffuse the ticking time bomb of his consequences. 

“I thought there was an intruder on our territory,” he lies through his teeth, tone honeyed. “I wanted to make sure you were safe. I didn’t want anyone near us.”

“Levi.” Armin’s voice is flat. “You broke my nose.”

Right. He winces. 

“I’m sorry,” he repeats, voice a whisper. “It all happened so fast.”

At least that is a partial truth. Everything happened in a blur. Levi’s main goal was to get outside and be seen. Looking back, he truly was an unruly mutt, busting through the door and chasing after the bumper of a car. Would Armin even buy that tale?

Much to Levi’s disbelief, he does. 

Shoulders lifting with a heavy sigh, Armin stares right through him. 

“Levi,” he starts, scolding. “You can’t be seen. They would take you away from me. We wouldn’t be together anymore.”

Sounds like heaven, Levi thinks, but he puts on the face he knows Armin wants to see: ashamed. Remorseful.

“I’m sorry,” he repeats robotically. Because he could never be apologetic enough for Armin. “I won’t run again.”

Armin takes a small step forward and Levi automatically skitters backwards, spine pressing into the wall. There’s a look in Armin’s eyes that makes his brow sweat. An unfocused, unstable gaze. Just like that, Levi knows he’s lost him; Armin has slipped into one of his moods — the ones where Levi pays the price.

“Yeah…” Armin breathes. He tosses the muzzle towards The Pink Nest and worries the club’s grip between two hands. Levi swallows hard. A tremble has picked up through his form. “I’m sure you won’t try to leave ever again, Levi.”

With that, he advances, and the house rings with Levi’s screams.

Notes:

Better luck next time! 😌💜

I would also like to take a moment to apologize for not getting to my comments recently. Not just on this fic, but on my other works as well. Irl life has been super hectic as of late and by the time I’m able to log in at the end of the day, I am severely unmotivated and tired and end up just logging off and going to sleep. I hope to get to them soon over the holidays!

Chapter 11

Notes:

Hello! Happy Thanksgiving! Sorry about missing my upload yesterday, the prep day was insane!

Now, I present to you: The Chapter - the one that inspired this fic. Only took us 30k to get to it, ha. A lot of the tags for this fic apply here. Please read with caution

Happy reading! 💜

Levi’s cheek throbs. His whole face hurts in a constant loop of unending pressure. A sizeable lump has formed on his cheekbone, swelling up under his eye, forcing the right one to squint. Armin got him in the face with the club — his final swing. 

Previously, he rained down blows with not a care for Levi’s wellbeing at all; Until, he hit his face. 

Levi’s pained shriek — no different from any other he’d released — had somehow gotten through to the omega. In an instant, Armin had dropped his club and cupped Levi’s split face between his soft hands, whilst muttering apologies. His worrying thumb over the cut had made it hurt a thousand times worse. How suiting: that Armin’s touch burned even when it was meant to soothe.

In just a few seconds, Armin went from a bloodthirsty madman to a doting nurse, fussing over the weeping cut. And Levi’s head spun from the switch up. Stinging antiseptic was swabbed over his many lacerations and stitches done on the worst.

After, it was all too easy for Armin to lug Levi’s pitiful form into the workbench chair. Where Levi now currently resides, lashed to the hardy wood, just like the first time.

A headache pounds behind his temples, right in the orbital socket. The ache in his face refuses to go away. Honestly, it’s pure misery. Levi wants to be sick from it all, but there’s nothing to come up. So, he just feels… sick.

He can do nothing but stare listlessly at the final step of the basement, completely restrained, sufficiently beaten, and utterly hopeless. There truly is no way out of this never ending nightmare…

Armin promised to be back soon. That had to have been over a day ago. Total exhaustion took him under some time ago and now his neck is sore from his head lolling at an unnatural angle. The crash from adrenaline and also from being arguably one of the worst nights of his life made it certain that even in the face of torture and imprisonment, Levi could sleep.

He’s been out for an indiscernible amount of time. Now, he just gets to wait. When he sleeps, the time passes quicker. Or at least, it feels like it. He usually wakes up when the floorboards creak overhead, signaling Armin is home. The alternative is sitting in maddening silence for hours and hours on end.

But he can sleep no longer.

Tied to the chair, he doesn’t even get the luxury of moving around like he did before. Nor can he relieve himself or drink water. Not that he needs to go; there’s nothing left in his system after last night. He’s cried himself dry.

It’s just… the few autonomous privileges he once had are now gone. Back to square one. 

The lights are off, but the fairy lights from The Pink Nest give him just enough to make out the outline of certain things. Levi isn’t sure if that’s better than the pitch black. Maybe Armin was trying to be somewhat nice, but Levi hates it. 

The almost-shadows are worse, he decides. When it’s pitch darkness, he can tell himself it’s all in his head, but when it’s like this, there’s always a feeling that something’s just out of eye’s reach. Something on his peripheral. The fear that there will be something peeking out at him from the low glow.

He shakes so hard, the chair creaks beneath him like it’s being caught in a quake.

By the time Armin bothers coming back down, Levi’s muscles are depleted from the constant strain, and his body throbs from the pain of his wounds. His face is tacky with dried tears and terribly itchy. The remnants of salt sting at his cut.

The omega yanks the chain for the naked bulb. Dingy yellow light washes over them, illuminating every feature of Armin’s face. His pretty nose is an ugly purple bruise and swollen. The inner corners of his eyes are stained a deep wine color. 

Levi’s sure his own is similar and loathes the idea of matching his tormentor in any way.

His face is utterly blank; Levi can’t tell if he’s about to be hit again or if Armin’s happy to see him. 

“Armin,” Levi greets in a low mumble. He keeps his head down, gaze on the floor, fearing that like a wild animal, eye contact would make Armin lunge. 

“Levi.” The omega responds curtly. He has some non-slip shoes on. He must have come from labs. That explains why he was gone so long.

“I’m sorry.” He doesn’t know why he keeps apologizing, but he feels he needs to offer something to cool Armin’s head. It’s a knee-jerk response. This isn’t something he should be apologizing about, which infuriates him — a small, defiant space in his chest simmering from the unfairness. Of course he would run! Any normal person would do what he did.

“I know, Levi.” Armin lies too. “You’ll never run again.”

Levi knows that Armin knows that he isn’t really sorry. And that he’ll try again, given even the slightest chance. But they pretend to each other for now. 

He dares to ask, “May I please get out of the chair?”

“Not yet. You’re not ready.” The answer doesn’t surprise him.

Armin sheds his windbreaker, shrugging it off onto the workbench. His shoes follow.

Ah. It clicks in Levi’s mind. He’s here for sex. Guess he should have expected that when Armin didn’t come down with food.

Perhaps that’s another thing he’s lost: The Pink Nest.

Since Armin constructed the nest, they fuck there, instead of the cold concrete floor. Now, they’re back to the chair from the first time. Like Armin was repeating the process all over again. Levi hopes he doesn’t have to earn back the privilege of the collar. As much as he hates it, it’s a small freedom from the chair.

In front of him, the omega strips nude clinically, baring his body to the chilly basement air. 

Breathing in deep, Levi tries to clear his head and get ready for what comes next. He hasn’t figured out if being hard already is any better. That rarely happens, and when it does, he feels hideously gross, like he’s inviting it in. Like he wants Armin to touch him. 

Most of the time, Armin has to use his mouth or hand on him to get him ready, coaxing his cock to life.

No matter how much Levi tries to think of things that arouse him: old exes, nudie mags, the way Armin feels around him… he stays soft this time. He’d like to chalk it up to the vicious beating he was subjected to less than 24 hours ago. Still, that stupid, stupid feeling he gets when he can’t get an erection eats away at his pride.

Once Armin is finished undressing, he turns to Levi, giving him a sweet smile when he catches Levi looking. Then, his eyes slide to Levi’s lap and his eyes soften. 

“Need some help?” He asks, like he does every other time. As always, Levi stays silent. 

Armin kneels between his legs and takes Levi in his mouth. It’s hot and wet and wonderful, but it still takes some time for him to get fully hard. Armin’s hands are on the tops of Levi’s thighs for stability, and even that touch feels like too much. The pleasure between his legs is nauseating. He wants it to stop. He wants it to keep going — it feels so good. 

The longer Armin bobs on him, mouth slurping along his length, Levi’s head tilts back, soft breaths gasping form between his lips. The horror of what’s being done to him dulls as instinct takes over. On one particularly harsh suck, his legs jump beneath Armin’s palms, squirming in his binds. It is then that Armin deems him ready. 

Pulling off with a wet pop, the omega stands before him, smooth abdomen pressed close to Levi’s face. Fingers lace in his hair. He knows what the omega wants — he wants reciprocation. 

Armin wants Levi to hold and kiss him the way he does for him. He wants Levi to strain for him and greet him when he comes down. He wants Levi to get hard just from looking at him. 

Armin wants to be wanted, wants to be loved. Craves intimacy between lovers.

But that is one thing Levi refuses to give. After everything the Basement has taken from him, that is one thing Armin cannot force him to do. He cannot make Levi lean into a kiss. He cannot make the alpha nuzzle into him and purr like he does. 

Armin cannot make Levi love him. And Levi takes comfort in that. 

He can rape him, beat him, starve him, but he cannot force love. For once, that is something Armin won’t get from him. He can have Levi’s body, but he cannot have his heart. 

The omega slithers into his lap, kissing the crown of Levi’s head as he slots his thighs around the alpha’s waist. His skin is so warm against Levi’s own. The touch of another finally coming after being isolated for so long. Though Levi hates it, his chest swells with the proximity. His inner alpha begs for the company of pack and preens at the small taste of skin on his.

Fingers rake up and down his neck, blunt nails skittering over his nape to make him shiver. Levi keeps his eyes closed. It’s better than seeing Armin’s love-sick blue ones or the motion of his body working over Levi. 

Armin kisses him behind his ear, rocking down into his lap. Levi’s wet cock twitches where it’s pressed between them. 

“I missed you so much today, baby,” Armin whispers, face tucked in Levi’s hair. His breath is hot on the shell of his ear. His hips keep rocking and circling; Levi can feel the heat between his legs on his thighs. “I kept thinking of my sweet alpha, down here all alone…”

Finally, Armin drops his seat to sit directly on Levi’s thighs, rubbing himself there, bare. Slick wets his skin, hot and plentiful. Levi screws his face up at the sensations. Though his cock is hard, his stomach rolls. The omega's arousal is both a curse and a temptation.

Softly, Armin groans under his breath as he grinds on Levi’s lap. The tip of his cock ruts against Levi’s own, occasionally brushing against the alpha’s abdomen to leave a sticky trail. Water floods Levi’s mouth and he swallows repeatedly, trying to take deep, shaky breaths. All he can smell is Armin: his scent, his slick, his breath. 

Grinding forward, Armin moans.

“I can never wait to get back here and see you again,” the omega continues. His whispers tickle Levi’s skin, resulting in revolting shivers. “You’re always on my mind — always have been.”

Lifting his hips up, he grants Levi a moment of reprieve from his incessant humping, but then he reaches a hand between them to grasp Levi’s cock. 

Sucking in a breath, Levi goes rigid. Like all the other times, his heart is pounding wildly in his chest. So hard, it hurts.

Endure, endure, endure. It’s just sex. That’s all this is. It’ll be over soon.

Slowly — in a way that would have been delicious had it been in any other setting, with any other person — Armin pumps him in his fist, focusing on the head. Though he bites his tongue and tries his hardest to stay silent, a deep groan rattles through his chest, and it feels like defeat. Armin chuckles in amusement, turning to peck him on the neck, then nipping him lightly, teeth pricking his skin.

“I’ve watched you fuck your fist so many times, imagining it was me…”

The words make Levi choke, going cold. In horror, all he can do is listen, whilst Armin strokes his cock languidly.

Using his thumb, he collects the weeping precum from the head and smooths him all the way down to his base, tugging down his foreskin a bit. There, his hand circles the base of Levi’s cock — the knot — simply holding him there. 

“Watched you fuck those other bitches when you brought them back to your den. It hurt my heart to see you cheat on me, but I watched because I knew that someday, we’d be together, and I wanted to know how to please you.”

He squeezes slightly and Levi jolts in place, voice catching in his throat.

“I want to be… everything to you.”

Cold fear settles in his bones as Armin reiterates that. The truly psychotic belief that Levi would ever succumb to his whims. The desire for Levi to want Armin and nothing else. He shivers in muted horror. Armin’s danger reveals itself a little bit more.

“And now, I have you all to myself. Forever,” the omega simpers, pulling back. Frightened that he’ll be hit, Levi’s eyes fly open, flinching, but Armin is merely sitting there, taking him in, head tilted slightly. “I’ve given you so much, Levi,” he whispers. As he speaks, holding Levi’s gaze, he guides the alpha’s tip inside of him. He groans as he sinks all the way down in a smooth slide. His eyelids flutter with the feeling of fullness before pining Levi back under his gaze.

“I gave you all of me,” he clarifies in a hushed whisper. One of his hands comes between them to rest a palm on his belly, where Levi’s cock is nestled deep. “I’ve cared for every one of your base needs. I’ve been a good omega.”

After adjusting, he begins to bounce — slow, sensual pulls that make Levi’s throat jump. 

He narrows his eyes. “And you ran,” he spits suddenly. Armin’s scent tinges with smoky anger. 

Levi gulps. “I’m sorry.”

Armin doesn’t hear him. His breaths pant as he works himself in Levi’s lap. 

It’s all about the omega tonight, and Levi is fine with that. When Armin gets him off, it feels like something black and rotten has made its way into his guts. But when he is just a tool for the omega, it’s easier to detach from it all. 

The noises, the grunts, the creaking wood — it’s easier to block out when Armin isn't focused on him. 

Armin pants in his lap, hips jumping and canting, angling Levi’s cock inside of him to always reach the spot that makes the omega shiver and turns his voice high and needy. Levi looks on over his shoulder, counting the number of steps up towards the door, then counts them back down. He taps the pads of his fingers against his thumbs, counting, then goes back down the line. 

When Armin finishes, he jolts in Levi’s lap, brow furrowed, and lips pinched together as he breathes heaving through his nose. His cock paints warm spurts of white over Levi’s stomach. The spend drips down into the dips of his hip bones, pooling unpleasantly. Levi’s skin itches.

Gaze unfocused, he counts the ceiling beams as Armin comes down from his high, uninterested in reality sitting in his lap. Distantly, he’s relieved it’s over so quickly, and is eager to see if Armin will untie him so he can wash everything away.

He knows Armin is staring at him as he breathes heavily, but refuses to look at him. He always feels the omega’s gaze upon him like a brand. Adjusting himself, Armin shifts in Levi’s lap, but doesn’t rise. Fingers clamp around his kneecap painfully in an iron-tight grip. That forces him to wince, but it doesn’t draw his eyes. 

Then, much to Levi’s disappointment, Armin picks up again. Rocking steadily, he rides Levi’s cock deliberately. Each pull and each squelch attuned especially for him.

Finally, Levi breaks, squeezing his eyes shut and brow crumpling with distress. “Please stop.”

“But baby, I want you to come too,” Armin says softly, breathily. His scent is calmer now that he’s had an orgasm.

“‘M tired,” Levi rebuffs pitifully, hoping Armin will relent. 

He doesn’t.

Armin moans and bites his lips, looking at him from under his lashes, eyes dark. The muscles in his thighs flex as he starts lifting himself more in a way that has Levi’s toes curling into hard stone.

“Mmm, but baby…” Armin purrs. His voice is like an oily hand, reaching out and caressing Levi’s face, smearing its filth all over him. “You feel so good—” he seats himself hard and Levi barks out a shameful noise. 

Armin leaps at the opportunity. “See?” to prove his point, he does that thing, just right — the way that makes Levi cave Every. Damn. Time. 

His shaky moans reverberate off the Basement walls, sullying them with his filthy desire. They’ve seen every part of him: at every low he’s ever been at, sniveling, snotting, crying, and also — disgustingly pleasured.

Truly, no sane person would ever enjoy the torment of their captor. And Levi doesn’t! In his heart, he screams and mourns as Armin takes a little more from him, every time he does this. 

But also, his body reacts to Armin’s touch. The omega pulls the most visceral, devastating noises from him. Pushes him over the edge when Levi digs his heels in and tries to refuse. Makes Levi… want it.

Sobbing to himself, tears sparse and useless, a moan and groan slips in between. Levi would like it if Armin sewed his mouth shut or put the muzzle back on him again. At least that way Levi wouldn’t have to hear himself. 

Listening to himself enjoy his captor’s assault is the worst torture. He can’t be liking this. He can’t come from this—!

Just as his knot swells to completion, locking firm and tight to join them together with a close tie, Armin shudders on his knot, arching over himself to curl into Levi’s body, tucking his face into the alpha’s neck.

Then, with no explanation, no warning, the omega bites into his neck. Deep.

All thoughts come to a screeching halt in Levi’s head.

...

Eyes blowing wide, everything becomes overwhelming and too quiet all at once. His tears come to a halt immediately. The air is too chilly. The sound of silence is too loud. It’s like time stops. Levi stops breathing, eyes trained unseeing, staring at the cluttered gloom of the basement. He can’t move. He can’t think.

Armin’s teeth grind deeper into his skin, latching onto him. 

No. Not just his neck. His gland. The mating gland just above the swell of his trap. Unyielding teeth dig at his skin, forcing, branding, clenching down. Like the omega is battling with the will of Levi’s skin. Then, the tension pops, and fangs pierce through and slide into place in Levi’s flesh. 

He forgets how to think. He doesn’t know himself. His mind is a blank slate, open and willing. His heart welcomes the presence that slips in beside him, snuggling up close. It wraps around him like a vine, holding him close and refusing to let go. He is…

Mated.

Armin bit him. Mated him. 

Time catches up, snapping back into place. The world picks up around him. Along with it, something in his chest becomes alive. 

A raggedy, frayed thread pierces from his heart, arcing out into the unknown, searching…

And it twangs tight as it finds home. Gurgling, Levi jerks beneath the omega, body jolting like struck by lightning.

Armin. Armin, Armin Armin. 

Everything — every sensation, every thought, every smell. It’s all Armin. All Levi can think about is the omega on his lap. 

Armin, Armin, Armin. 

Levi’s acutely aware of the weight of him. His warmth. His smell. The feeling of his teeth digging into Levi’s neck. How he feels locked tight and warm around Levi’s knot. 

They’re knotted together, kept close. Levi wants him closer. He needs to hold him. He needs to feel Armin in his chest. He’s halfway born. 

He needs Armin. 

Armin stays tucked close to him, curled over Levi’s heaving chest, and doesn’t release his teeth for a long time. 

The bond grows stronger, threads growing and wrapping around it as it creeps closer and closer to his heart. Levi’s fangs slide from his gums, pulsing with such ferocity he’s almost dizzy with it.

Every cell within him demands that he complete the bond. To bite Armin back and strengthen the fragile thread. It’s so delicate right now. He needs to finish it — make it whole. They need to be one: interlinked. 

It’s walking with one leg. It’s reaching for something with no hand.

Finally, after an eternity has passed for Levi in just a few seconds, Armin’s smaller omega fangs scrape out of the wound. Hissing beneath his breath, Levi winces, chest heaving with the intensity of the bond blooming. His skin tingles and prickles. He feels cold. And hot. His extremities have gone numb.

“There we go,” Armin states proudly, voice raspy with arousal as he looks over Levi’s shivering form. “Now you’ll feel more like yourself.”

Blinking rapidly, Levi tries to orient himself. His head is full with thoughts, but nothing makes sense. Nothing makes sense without Armin. 

Armin, who is right there in front of him. Armin, who is the only thing in his head that matters.

Not thinking, his body tries to move forwards, straining for the omega. His head tilts up, searching for the source of Armin’s scent. The gland. The gland, the gland, the gland. It calls to him. Levi’s gums throb with every pulse of Armin’s heart. Like a homing beacon, his mouth is called to one place. There’s a place where his fangs will fit perfectly. A place where Levi could make himself whole.

He needs to complete the bond. He needs him. 

As he leans forward, a cool palm is placed on his forehead, and the hand shoves him back roughly. 

Levi whimpers, trying to wrench his head away, to get free. He blinks, eyes rolling as a sharp pang goes through his chest. He’s incomplete. He needs to complete them. He has been ripped apart and stitched back together by a thread. That single thread that Armin gave him. Armin.

Every second he spends not whole, it feels like he’s dying. His chest is splitting open. He’s crumbling before Armin’s eyes. He needs him.

“Ah, ah,” Armin’s voice cuts through the watery gloom Levi’s drowning in. “Not yet, Levi.”

“Armin,” his dry throat rasps out. It’s the only word he knows. “Armin- Armin!”

His please descend into cries, until the words that leave his mouth are unintelligible sobs. Maybe it’s Armin’s name. Maybe it’s wrecked, devastated howling. 

His chest is a bloody mess. The shaky thread is the only thing tying him to a lifesource. Without the single anchor to Armin, he’d be lost. It’s madness. He’ll go insane. He needs—

“I know,” Armin soothes, using that cool, grounding hand to stroke his hair back from his sweaty forehead. “I know.”

It actually does calm Levi some. His omega is touching him. Armin, Armin, Armin. He’s here. He’s so close. Levi needs him close forever. There’s a space inside his heart, carved out to perfectly fit the omega, yet it remains empty. Hollow and desolate. A home unlived in. Everything that Levi is belongs to him. 

“Shh,” Armin whispers. He keeps petting over him rhythmically. 

Levi’s eyes roll back in his head. A wave of nausea builds within him. He needs Armin, he thinks weakly. He’ll die without him. If he leaves, Levi will never be the same. 

“Please,” Levi whimpers through cracked lips. His chest heaves with the gargantuan effort it takes to speak. “Armin. Please.”

He’s learned another word. Something else in the world that exists besides Armin.

“It’s okay, Levi,” Armin whispers reassuringly. The petting is starting to become overwhelming. Armin’s palm passes over his eyes, scrubs over his forehead, and harshly presses his hair back. It’s too much. It’s not right. Levi’s breath is harder to come. No. Nothing is okay. Not without the bond. “It’s okay. It’s okay.” He keeps repeating the reassurance. 

Levi wants to believe him. He wants it to be true.

But he can’t fathom the words he needs to speak, shaking his head wildly, mouth open uselessly. His fangs won’t retract. His only hope is that Armin can feel what he is feeling. Maybe then he’ll understand — maybe then he’ll let Levi sink his fangs in too, bond him back. Surely, Armin wants him to feel whole too? Their bond is half-complete. It’s unbalanced. Levi might just slip off the earth and into oblivion if not.

Without the other side of the bond, Levi can’t remember what it was ever like to be just him. Hasn’t Armin always been a part of him?

Notes:

Armin always wins

Chapter 12

Notes:

Hello! Sorry for missing my upload last week. Thank you to those who checked in on me. Yes, I am alive and well, however, the holiday seasons do bring stress. Unfortunately, a lot is happening on both sides of my family; one, I will be ceasing most contact with once the new year hits. The other, I am preparing myself mentally to receive the news of a death in the family.

Long story short, I believe it is best for me to take a break from writing for the rest of the month of December. I will do my best to upload the chapters I have available, but I'm not planning on writing further or releasing new standalone fics. Sorry for the pause, but life has been... life recently.

Here is the next chapter, I hope you enjoy me putting Levi through hell and back :)

When Armin leaves, it’s like he’s being gutted alive. He howls as Armin clicks off the light and walks away, not once turning his back to Levi’s pathetic, incoherent panicking. And he howls on into the night, crying and calling out for his omega. He begs the pitch-black darkness for another chance. He pleads with the silence for Armin to come back. He’ll be good! He’s worthy of the omega’s love, he’ll prove it!

That has to be why Armin didn’t complete the bond. Levi must prove himself. Whatever it is Armin wants, he’ll give it. Levi’s existence wouldn’t be complete, wouldn’t make sense, without him.

He pulls in deep lungfuls of air searching for any trace of Armin’s scent in the house. He needs something of the omega to keep him sane. He wants to touch him, hold him. He needs to be near him. Yet, he is forced to be satisfied with the stale scent of Armin’s sex on him.

His skin screams for the touch of his mate and to taste their scents mingling in the air. Even his simple presence would be better than this. Armin wouldn’t have to talk to him or interact with him. Levi just wants him close to him. He needs to know that Armin’s okay. He needs to be near his mate. Like air, he needs…

As the night drones on, Levi’s cries taper off. No one answers him. The shaky bond mellows some, but not much; it still aches and searches, just quieter, duller. Levi starts to feel less like he’s dying and more detachedly numb. Nothing matters. Nothing else but Armin matters, and he’s not here. It becomes increasingly clearer to his alpha that there won’t be a bond — at least, not for a while. Not tonight. 

A hollow feeling replaces his insides. Levi doesn’t feel alive. His body is just an empty shell, existing to protect that thin thread that roots in his chest. It’s so delicate. It feels like it might snap at any given moment. That idea might have sent Levi into a panic, earlier in the night, but at the moment, he simply stares catatonically at what might be the cold floor of the basement, and waits for Armin to return.

 

---

 

Levi feels awful. His neck aches fiercely; the bond-bite throbs, feeling hot. Tender with each swallow. His whole body is dull with fever, joints tight and uncomfortable.

Any grievance he harbors is washed from his mind when he finally sees Armin again.

Like his entire body is fine tuned to the omega’s existence, he can feel that it’s Armin just at the top of the step, waiting behind the door. Levi whimpers in his chest, beside himself. Armin is back. He gets to see Armin again!

The omega comes down, a pleased, smug smirk pulling at his lips.

Levi is more interested in drinking up his presence. His eyes rove over every detail of the omega’s face, every line of his body, and the movement of his limbs. 

Levi’s heart aches at the sight of him. The ugly bruise across the omega’s face is a devastating reminder to Levi why the omega won’t let him bond him. No omega would want a violent alpha. He needs to make up for his actions. No more mistakes.

Though he knows this, that all goes out the window when Armin gets close to him. All other thoughts become obsolete to being close to Armin once more.

Barely able to contain himself, he strains in his binds for him, eyes fixed upon the omega as he walks forward into Levi’s space. With him he brings a fresh wave of his scent. How wonderful it is to scent his other half again. Fresher, cleaner, more fulfilling than any breath of outside air could grant him. A soft whine of the omega’s name leaves Levi’s throat. 

“Oh, Levi,” Armin whispers, drinking in the sight of utter devotion and desperation on Levi’s face. “You’re perfect.”

Happiness courses through him at the omega’s praise. He’s good! Armin’s pleased with him. Perfect.

The omega saunters up to him and leans down to kiss him softly on the lips. Levi eagerly presses into it, heart bubbling as Armin shows him affection, spares the time for him. The fragile thread in his chest screams for another chord to intertwine with — the final piece so close.

Armin takes care to avoid Levi’s elongated fangs. They still haven’t retracted, constantly throbbing, searching. When he straightens back up, Levi follows with his eyes, unable to even think of looking away. It’s all worth it when Armin smiles down at him. So happy.

Levi can hardly breathe. He's so happy to see him too.

… until Armin walks around him, disappearing from Levi’s line of sight. Sheer panic wells within him when he can’t see Armin again. It’s too soon! Not when he just got him back. 

“Armin?” He calls worriedly, trying to awkwardly crane his neck to look behind him, but it doesn’t work very well from the loops of rope around his upper torso. His voice cracks from the abuse he’s put his vocal cords through the past few hours. 

“I’m right here, Levi.” Armin’s sing-song voice reassures him from somewhere further in the basement behind him.

Movement shuffles behind him as Armin goes about his task behind Levi’s back. A sudden harsh clink of chains snatches Levi’s attention and his anxiety’s right back. His breathing picks up, shallow and quick. He doesn’t know why it’s like that. He doesn’t know why he’s scared. Armin’s here. Everything’s okay when Armin’s here. Even if Levi can’t see him right now. 

Armin is his omega. He loves Levi. The world is okay as long as Levi can see him, smell him.

Levi strains his ears, trying to listen for the sound of Armin’s breathing over the noise. Without realizing he’s doing it, a low rumbling sound comes from his chest — a call for a response. Armin, wonderful Armin, answers immediately, soothing the worst of Levi’s unease.

“Sweet alpha,” Armin coos, voice still distant. “I’m right here baby.”

It helps. A little. 

And he’s telling the truth, because just a few moments later, sparks ignite along Levi’s nape as his mate's fingers brush against it. Violently, his whole body shivers at the touch. It feels like fireworks going off in his skull. Euphoria floods him and he instantly relaxes, all worry leaving him, lolling back into the touch of his omega. Armin hums happily in his throat, stroking Levi’s neck for a moment, before clipping the heavy chain to Levi’s collar. 

Even as it pulls tight, pricking its metal teeth into Levi’s throat, he remains calm. Because Armin is right there. Right beside him. 

The omega shuffles behind him, fingers resting on Levi’s shoulder before he senses a presence near his neck and—

Armin laps his tongue over the burning bond bite, slowly, sensually. 

Instantly, Levi tosses his head back with a sucking gasp like he’s never had air before, then curls forward, shoulders scrunching up as sheer pleasure courses through his body, pooling hot and dangerous in his crotch. Ohh, it feels wonderful. Like Armin just rubbed a magic balm over the bloody teeth marks and fixed everything broken within Levi.

With another lick, Levi moans unabashed, toes curling into his soles. His groin is alive with a need so strong, he feels drunk. All he wants is Armin in his lap right now. Something warm and wet wrapped around him. He needs to knot. To cum.

He wants Armin to kiss him again. He wants to sink his own fangs into that pale, smooth neck, and show the world that Armin is his, the same way Levi belongs to him. That would be the greatest completion Levi would ever know. To be whole — balanced. Right.

Teeth prick into him, nibbling into the stinging wounds. Just like that, the mingle of pain and utter bliss has him coming abruptly with a strangled sound, squirming against rope and wood, trying vainly to get free. 

He can feel Armin’s grin against his neck — the press of bared teeth to his skin in a display of pride. 

“Oh, Levi,” Armin coos in his ear, laying his head on the alpha’s shoulder, while caressing his chest with a soft, wandering hand. “Was that good?”

Riding his sudden and violent high, Levi nods, mouth slack. So good…

Gentle fingers pluck at his nipples and Levi’s hips move against the resistance, trying to buck up into something, finding only air. His cock hurts with nothing wrapped around it. The knot at the base is unsatisfied and under stimulated. Armin huffs in his neck, amused. 

“God, look at you,” he whispers, almost to himself. “I should have done this right from the start, huh? Would have made it so much easier on us.”

Desperately, Levi nods in agreement. If there’s anything better in the world than how it feels to be Armin’s, it would only be doing this sooner.

“Hmm,” Armin hums, stroking Levi’s chest in thought. “I tried to give you the chance to show me this naturally, but I guess I should have let you feel this good all along.” He chuckles when he pinches one of Levi’s pebbled nipples and the alpha moans like a seasoned whore. “I’m sorry baby, I didn’t realize just how sensitive you’d be like this.”

That’s alright, Levi forgives him. 

“You’ll never run again, isn’t that right?”

“Never,” Levi gasps, inhaling sharply as Armin kisses the weeping teeth marks on his gland once more.

Never, he thinks. Not in a million years. 

He’s here to stay. For as long as Armin will have him. 

Giggling under his breath, Armin comes to stand in front of him, looking over Levi with those loving eyes he has so often now that Levi’s better. A smear of crimson stains his lips. With a soft look on his face, he cups Levi’s jaw in hand, and Levi eagerly leans into it, relaxing into the warmth of Armin’s palm. This is so much better than the violent, angry flash he’d get in those baby blues when Levi was bad. 

Well, Levi won’t be bad anymore. He can’t imagine ever wanting to do something to displease Armin again.

This side of Armin makes him happy. Because Armin gives him soft kisses and touches him where it feels good and lets Levi drink in his scent freely. 

And –!

Abruptly, Armin thumbs over his swollen, tender cheekbone and presses his nail into the split skin, scattering Levi’s train of thought and making him hiss in pain. Shocked, he rears his head back, shrinking into himself.

Just as quickly as it happens, it’s over. Armin pulls away with no explanation and though Levi is dumbfounded, he quickly brushes it off. Armin doesn’t seem phased about it at all.

It was an accident, Levi decides. Those happen. 

Shaking himself, Levi steadies his breathing. Armin hums to himself as he check’s Levi’s collar, cinching it tight, tight, tight , then releasing it. Levi’s fingers flex in their bonds behind him as a wave of calming bliss washes over him. Fuck, that was nice. Just what Levi’s been needing after all the turmoil and anxiety. 

Armin is so good to him like that. He knows exactly what Levi needs and cares for him so well. 

After that, Armin disappears upstairs, coming back with a banana and Levi’s pill. Obediently, Levi swallows it dry, and doesn’t remember what number he’s supposed to be on. Armin smiles brightly at him and feeds Levi little dice-sized chunks of the fruit. So, Levi decides to count those instead. Five total. Each one delicately accepted between Levi’s teeth, mindful to not catch his omega’s fingers. 

Levi can’t bear the thought of ever hurting his omega again. 

Armin feeds him half of the banana, then eats the rest himself. After, he unfastens all of Levi’s ropes, taking time to massage the feeling back into each section, making the alpha nearly purr in appreciation. Everything is so sore and stiff from so long in the chair. 

He helps Levi slide from the chair to the ground, because his legs are still static-y and unresponsive, like they’re dead. The soles of his feet are busted and bleeding, but at least Levi can’t feel the pain. While Armin works on The Pink Nest, he gives Levi the autonomy to drag himself on his elbows back to his corner, where he dips his mouth into his bucket and drinks for a long, long time, then relieves himself into the drain. 

The short stream is a dark brown and Armin frowns over his shoulder at him in thought. The sour look on the omega’s face makes Levi worry. Why was Armin upset? Did Levi do something wrong? It doesn’t seem to be anger, which is good, but Levi hates it when Armin isn’t happy and looking at him with that soft look that was so rare before now.

“Armin?” He asks nervously, curling up against the wall, hugging his knees and trying to subtly knead his calf muscles back to life. There are thousands of little bugs crawling up and down his legs beneath the skin.

The omega shakes from his stupor. “Sorry baby,” he apologizes and strides over to him. “Just thinking.”

Not explaining further, Armin leashes him to the Pink Nest, swapping the chains. Levi perks up. He gets the nest! Everything must be alright!

Giddy with excitement, he tries to stand, but his legs tremble violently and he sinks back down. His soles are alive with the ant-like feeling of dead limbs coming back to life, so he opts to crawl on his hands and knees over to the soft, pink mattress. Not wanting to keep Armin waiting and certainly not wanting to miss even a second of the time he’s earned in the nest, Levi curls into the pillows eagerly.

From behind, his arm is roughly pinched and he grunts in surprise more than pain. When he turns, Armin is frowning again. Levi does too, mimicking him, and rubs the sore spot on his bicep. The omega sighs through his nose and goes and fetches Levi’s water bucket. As he thunks it down, the water sloshes up the sides. Armin must be expecting to be gone for a while.

“I’ll get you something to make you better, baby,” he reassures, brushing Levi’s bangs back from his forehead. Levi believes him; Armin has already done so much for Levi — like when he needed help performing, and he gave him that medicine. Which feels so silly now, because how could he have had trouble getting hard for his omega? And also when he gave him his new pills to keep him healthy. And tended to his wounds, keeping them clean, when Levi so foolishly got hurt? 

Subtly, he feels the omega press the back of his hands against his forehead, but it’s gone in a split second. 

A smile is back on Armin’s face, so everything is fine again. 

But, when the omega stands and Levi realizes that he is not going to join him in The Pink Nest, he panics. 

“Armin? Where are you going? Please stay.” A placating croon leaves his chest. His alpha pleads for its other half to join them.

Levi’s breath picks up in his chest and this overall feeling of dread settles into his frame. Armin can’t leave him! He needs him! Life is better when Armin is nearby. Levi doesn’t feel so empty when he can see him. He can’t handle more of the numbness that will overtake his body if his unbonded mate leaves. The thought of Armin out there, out of his sight, and exposed to god-knew what kind of threats, made Levi sick.

Armin doesn’t share the same concern Levi has for his safety. “It’s going to be fine, Levi. Nothing’s going to get me out there. I need to provide for us. Okay? I need to make sure you’re safe here.”

That sounds terrible to Levi. Vehemently, he shakes his head. 

What if Armin needs him? What if something happens to him and Levi can’t get to him. Levi’s scent bleeds nervousness and fear. His stomach rolls and he feels like he’s choking on his own air.

No, he doesn’t want Armin to leave. Really, he’d rather if they lay around in the soft nest all day and cuddle. Perhaps the omega might accept his bite, if he was good. They could kiss, and knot, and scent each other for hours and simply be. That would be nice, Levi thinks. No outside world to interfere. No pain, no fear, just Armin.

“Armin,” Levi begs, voice wobbling. “Please don’t leave me again. I need you.”

“You’ll be okay, my love,” Armin reassures him, cupping his cheek again. “Be good for me while I’m gone, yeah? You’ll see me before you know it.”

A tear slips down Levi’s cheek. He drinks in the blue of Armin’s eyes, trying to commit their hue to memory. It’s like the sky. 

Even as Levi calls after him, begging him to stay, Armin never looks back once.

 

---

 

The absence of Armin is crushing, but eventually, Levi catches his breath, and manages to blink until the world seems real again. It’s a little bit easier this time. Less traumatic than the first time Armin abandoned him. 

The bite mark on his neck throbs with each thudding pulse of his thundering heart. Every moment more he spends without Armin’s presence, he swears it hurts worse, until he’s practically hunched over in the fetal position, whimpering. 

The Pink Nest, while constructed by his omega’s hands, smells more of commercial laundry soap than it does of Armin. Levi can’t discern if that’s close enough to having Armin’s scent with him or not and hopes it will be adequate. After long, agonizing minutes spent feeling like he’s asphyxiating on the stale Basement air, his alpha decides that it’s not. It’s a poor substitute for the scent of his mate.

His one true comfort in this concrete prison turns out to be nothing but a disappointing illusion. 

To make it all worse, the prickling of heat in his gut starts to creep in as Levi lays in a miserable, crumpled heap in the nest. His eyes tickle with the idea of tears, but none fall. Soon, the warmth sinks into his groin, then spreads through his whole body in lapping waves.

Rut.

Notes:

I will see you next Wednesday! It's gonna be a fun one

Chapter 13

Notes:

If the universe wills it, there will be a chapter coming in a week or two. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy<3

long winded author's note at the end about where I've been

Levi is in hell. It burns. It burns. Every cell within him is smoldering in invisible embers. 

Not even his presentation rut was this miserable. This is other worldly. Pure torture. He wants to slam his head into the wall, shed his own skin — anything to escape the burn. Perhaps that would bring him some relief from this nightmare rut.

Easily, his temperatures soar into the hundreds and his brow is heavy with sweat for the entire day. Intense lethargy takes over him and he finds he can do little more than flop down into the nest and pant and sweat. At first, he tries to tirelessly jerk himself off to take some of the edge off, but he’s too agitated and horny to find any relief. He spills palmful after palmful of cum only to find himself still not feeling even slightly better and hard again only minutes later.

If anything, it only made him feel worse. Irritable. Frustrated. Exhausted in a way he could never describe with words and unsatisfied in a part of his soul that belongs solely to Armin. Levi wants to submerge himself in an ice bath or fuck something. Neither seem like they’ll do anything to curb the need in his gut at this point. 

There is only one person he could ever dream of mounting, and that’s Armin; And Armin isn't here. So, Levi is doomed to remain suspended in this wicked limbo, unable to cure his ailments nor soothe the piercing ache in his chest. It feels like he wastes away in that horrid pink nest, simply waiting for the tell-tale creak of wood that tells him his omega is home. 

Throat dry, head foggy, he crawls to the corner of the nest, and reaches for the water bucket, feeling weaker than he ever has in his life. Curling his knuckles over the lip, he tugs it closer, feeling cool water slosh over his fingertips. His arm trembles like a newborn fawn’s legs as he tries to prop himself up to take a drink. Abruptly, his arm collapses under him and accidentally puts all his weight on the lip of the bucket as he tries to steady himself. It tips over, spilling a flood of water all over the nesting materials and pools out in a puddle, staining the concrete dark. The plastic container rolls out of reach, mockingly dripping the last few precious drops onto the undeserving floor.

Levi nearly cries from disappointment, but he has nothing left in him for tears. The wet blankets are some relief against his cooking skin, which are only a positive for a little while; Soon, they start to absorb his body heat and he is once again surrounded by wretched warmth. The energy it takes for him to drag himself to another patch of the nest, chasing after the chilly spots, soon disperses.

He has no water now. And no way to know when Armin will be home. He whimpers pathetically and sinks back into the nest, resting his cheek on a soggy pillow.

Urged only by pure desperation, he sucks on a saturated blanket, trying to draw a few mouthfuls from the fabric. It moistens his tongue and throat, but it’s not enough. He needs a whole lake to quench the fire inside.

Some indiscernible amount of time later, the dancing spots at the edge of his vision blow wider and wider, before a sudden rush of light-headedness comes over him, and Levi lolls on the pink cushions, disoriented and head spinning. 

Armin was sweet to let him stay in The Pink Nest while he was out. He could have chained Levi back up to the wall, but he didn’t! Only, this is the one time Levi ever wishes he could be chained to the wall. Then, he’d have the cold floor to rest his cheek on and siphon away the misery pouring from his skin. 

But Levi doesn’t think that for too long. He’s in his omega’s nest and that is more of a blessing than Levi deserves. 

Oh, Armin. Levi weakly croons into the blankets, barely able to lift his head or peel open his eyes more than half way. Again, his alpha cries out for his mate. For some relief. 

That can be the only thing to satiate him when he’s like this, he realizes sometime later; Of course, his body is crying out for a mate. It’s unfinished. He’ll do anything to be allowed to bond Armin right now. Even if his body has to burn itself alive. 

It’s just cruel nature: his inner alpha is trying everything it can to entice Armin closer. A rut is an obvious tactic. So he’ll smell nice and ready to serve Armin in whatever he could want. No omega could be able to refuse him, right?

He feels like he should have realized that sooner, but with his brain being cooked inside his skull like a little steamer pot, he tries to not be so harsh on himself. If only he weren’t so pathetically sick right now. He hopes Armin isn’t deterred by that.

With a dry, scratchy throat, Levi swallows absently a few times, mouth like dry cotton. His head weighs a hundred pounds and his eyelids, a thousand, but he desperately clings to the last little bit of consciousness he has. Listening for the moment his omega comes home.

In some indescribable way, Armin’s return is his life’s focus right now. He is the epicenter of Levi’s existence, and Levi’s mind simply rotates around him like his own personal sun.

 

---

 

Fingers carding through his hair rouses him, like Mama used to when he was a little pup. Gentle and coaxing, slowly bringing him back to the waking world. He must have slipped under at some point. Groggily, Levi groans into the pillow his face is smushed up against, but doesn’t rise. He wants to keep sleeping. God, he’s so achy and heavy. His body feels like it’s cemented to the nest and he’ll have to be peeled up. 

“Levi…” a voice whispers, and it’s not Mama’s. Too heavy in its timbre to be her. However, his nose twitches and at once, his brain kicks in. His eyes peel open and take a moment to focus, but there he is — his omega! 

Levi croons for him, an instinctual mating call he hopes is answered, but almost instantly, exhaustion tugs his eyelids back down. Still, he can feel Armin’s cool fingers brushing against his cheek and scent the worry on his skin as if it were his own. Was the omega trembling?

Levi’s alpha rolls in his chest, distraught at the thought of his omega being upset. Were they in danger? Weakly, he tries to croon again, but it comes out as more of a weak groan. Self-hatred floods through his veins. Now, more than ever, he needs to be there for his omega and he can’t even do that! What a pathetic alpha he was. 

Armin thumbs over his slack lips. It occurs to him then that he is panting like an overheated dog in the summer. Something warm and salty plops onto Levi’s cheek.

“Shh, baby, I’m going to make you better,” he sniffles and wipes his eyes. Rustling occurs near them and Levi just listens, because Armin always fixes everything. He trusts the omega implicitly. Fumbling with something, Levi hears the omega curse under his breath, voice watery. “I’m going to make you better,” he repeats, quieter, to himself.

Armin fingers are back on his skin, swabbing something over the back of his hand; the sharp tang of alcohol stings Levi’s nose. Before he can comprehend it, something pricks under his skin and slides in. When he tries to flinch away, Armin’s strong hands easily hold him down, keeping him still. The omega shushes him gently. Tape is rubbed gently over the invasive object, securing it in place.

“You’ll feel better soon, Levi,” he comforts. The pad of his thumb works over Levi’s knuckles. “I’m so sorry.”

That makes Levi’s confused. What is Armin sorry about?

Over and over again, Armin apologizes softly while holding his hand. He only lets go long enough to fidget with something that clatters somewhere up above Levi’s head, but he’s right back, holding one of Levi’s hands in his. 

Like that, Levi slips back into oblivion, his hand a single point of relief from the burn, cupped between two cool, soft hands. And as he dreams, the sensation flows, liquidy and quenching from his hand to his heart, spreading all throughout his body.

 

---

 

The next time Levi’s mind resurfaces, Armin is still there at his side, holding his hand and dozing himself. Soft hair tickles Levi’s nose where he unconsciously shuffled closer to plant his nose in the crown of the omega’s hair. It scents of Armin’s coconut shampoo and nice, warm sleep. Like a balm to his aching body, his alpha settles in his chest, quelling with the knowledge that its mate is safe by his side. Opening his eyes fully, he looks straight up at the exposed beams of the ceiling, feeling slightly confused. 

After an eternity of inhibition and debilitation, Levi actually feels functional. He’s no longer gasping for air or on fire from the inside out. Still warm all over and weak, but alive. The hand that Armin holds has an IV needle protruding from the back. Following it up with his eyes, he sees a makeshift IV stand built from an old coat rack and some bits and pieces from around the house.

What looks like a shower curtain ring and some chip clips keep the bag secured. A true showcase of desperate medical student engineering.

A steady drip flows down the tube and into his arm. It dawns on him that it’s the origin of relief he felt earlier and not Armin’s touch. The thought disappoints him, for some strange reason. 

He thinks it would have been rather poetic for his omega’s hand in his to heal him from his internal hellfire.

He drinks in Armin’s sleeping form. With a jolt, he realizes this is the first time he’s ever seen Armin this vulnerable; He’s never been asleep like this around him. Some small part of the back of his brain crackles with an awful thought to shift away from his omega. Run away — far away. Or smother him with one of the fluffy pink pillows.

But just as quickly, it’s snuffed out, leaving Levi slightly rattled at the abrupt aggression towards his mate. He frowns and lifts a weak hand to card the omega’s messy hair away from his forehead. To make up for his unruly train of thought. It looks like Armin hasn’t slept in a while. His cheeks are waxy and his hair is wild and limp at the same time. He looks thinner. Beneath Levi’s fingertips, the omega seems… tired.

Levi hopes he is taking care of himself when he is away from the Basement.

Drawn awake by Levi’s touch, Armin stirs, lashes fluttering. He scrunches his face some, as if waking with the last dregs of an unpleasant dream at the forefront. Then, pretty, ocean-blue eyes meet his, and Levi’s heart floods with an emotion so intense, he can only lean forward and press his lips to the omega. Armin squeaks beneath him, surprised, but is quick to grip his forearms and relax back into the nest, sighing through his nose. He mouths into the kiss, changing the angle, slow and steady.

That intense feeling spreads throughout Levi’s entire body in a slow wave, filling every crevice of himself, until he’s overflowing with it. Sheets rustle as Levi presses the omega onto his back and clambers on top. Their kiss is still languid and gentle, because Levi wants Armin to feel all of his love and devotion, in any way he can express it. He wants Armin to know how much he means to him. That he is Levi’s everything. 

To show him this, Levi presses his hips forward, putting his hardening cock flush against the thin material of Armin’s scrub pants. His sweet, sweet omega gasps into his mouth at the sensation and Levi takes the chance to devour another slow kiss from his lips. He grinds forward again, hoping to capture another one of his omega’s sweet moans straight from the source, and is rewarded handsomely.

Kissing Armin is like grounding himself after floating inches off the floor his whole life. Putting their bodies together is the very purpose Levi has on this earth.

Though chapped, Armin’s lips are soft and warm, and Levi is starving for more already. He pulls away just enough to kiss over Armin’s cheek, then down his neck. Fingers dig into his biceps almost painfully and the omega hikes his knees up beneath him, letting Levi in between his legs.

Armin’s scent is so thick and heavy. Nothing else in the world could compare to it. The utter bliss that flows through his veins in response makes everything right inside. Levi breathes him in open-mouthed, then puts his tongue on the one spot where it’s the strongest and gets a taste. He kisses the gland sloppily, running his tongue over the welling oils and locks his lips around it to suck. Around his hips, Armin’s legs shiver and Levi can feel the beckoning heat of his sex even through the material of his pants.

His gut throbs at the idea of his mate being ready for him, wet and eager. Levi will pleasure him to the point where no one else could ever satisfy him. Armin will want for nothing else.

Grinding slowly between Armin’s legs, he feels his cock weep sticky fluid over the omega’s clothes. The pairing of Armin’s scent with his own arousal in the air makes him dizzy. His gums throb, fangs ready and exposed. Eager to bite and claim.

To make Armin his. 

A mating bite would no doubt induce the omega’s cycle. They could be perfect together, finally! Levi is ready. He’ll be everything to Armin, the same way the omega is to him!

Gasping into the omega’s neck, he fixes the weeping gland with a final suck, before opening his mouth and—

Armin’s fist connects with his temple.

Stars explode across his vision from the side. Reeling from the blow, Levi ungracefully flops sideways and curls in on himself, eyes squeezed shut from the pain. Groaning, he bruises his face in the nest, trying to hide away from any more outbursts.

He can hear Armin’s heavy breathing and the rustle of sheets as he leaps from the nest. Only then does Levi find the bravery to peek up at him. As if expecting Levi to launch at him, Armin stands a healthy distance away from the nest, teeth bared in a snarl.

“Don’t fucking bite me, Levi,” Armin spits, looking livid, his palm covering his gland. “No teeth. No one can know that you’re with me. They’ll take you away from me. Do you want that? Huh?!”

No! Levi can’t stand the thought of that happening! Never seeing Armin again? 

“I’m sorry,” he mumbles into the pillows, hoping to hide his tears. “‘M sorry, Armin. M’ so sorry. Please. I need you. Come back to bed.”

His heart is ripping open with each passing second. His skin is screaming to touch the omega again. Even if Armin just held his hand, that would be nice. He croons pitifully in his chest. “Omega…”

“No teeth,” Armin reprimands him, eyes cold. “No biting.”

Obediently, Levi nods, because whatever Armin might need of him, he’ll give it. He’ll withhold the urge to bite, no matter how it tears his heart to bloody pieces in his chest to be not whole. He’ll be good. Perfect.

Even when Armin goes to the workbench table and plucks up the dreaded muzzle, Levi doesn’t fight. At most, he whines in his throat, because it clogs his nose with leather and sweat while he just wants the scent of his mate in his lungs until he dies.

Though he hates it with every fiber of his being, Levi lets Armin slip the muzzle on with no struggle, shoulders drooping at the omega does up the clasps in the back. Armin coos for him and mutters placating words to him while Levi pouts. To finish, he lovingly kisses Levi’s leather-clad cheek, then plants a quick peck on his forehead. He seems much calmer now that Levi’s muzzled. 

He tries to be positive about it. If this makes his omega happy, then that should be enough for him.

“Don’t worry, my love,” he says. “It’s just for a little while.”

Sadly, Levi nods.

 

---

 

Whatever Armin wants, whatever he asks of him, Levi does it, as he always has. His instincts promise that if he pleases Armin, the omega will allow him to bite him back. Because that has to work! There must be something Levi can do to earn that privilege.

Any whim he utters and Levi leaps at the chance to obey it.

Sit. Stay. Roll over.

Hold him. Fuck him. Love him.

He lets Armin push him into whatever position pleases him, top or bottom. The omega nips at his neck, digging his teeth in as much as he likes, getting to mark the alpha’s throat, chest, and thighs up with dark bruises and rings of teeth marks all he wants. Often paired with his giggles when Levi snarls under his muzzle, frustrated and horny, gums throbbing violently. Though his instincts scream for him to mount and dominate, one little nibble directly at his gland has Levi melting, body going pliant. Time like those, Armin loved to clamber into his lap and ride him until they were groaning in harmony, knotted together as close as they could be. The most he can settle for is gripping the omega’s hips in a bruising grip while he works up and down on his cock, needing something to mark him as his. 

Armin laps up all the attention, giggling and begging, riling him up as much as he pleases. Post one knot, when they’re both dozing — spooning while connected still — Armin grinds back into him, scent mischievous. The little circles he makes are mind-numbing. Though Levi is exhausted and he’s still swollen and tender, he knows better than to leave Armin expecting. Especially when asked so blatantly. Though groggy, Levi dutifully tries to roll the pair so Armin is on his front so he can start fucking him again, but yelps in surprise when Armin roughly shoves him to his back. His cock pops free from its slick sheath with an audibly wet sound, spilling cum all over Levi’s abdomen. 

Armin is quick to pounce on him, shifting them so he’s in his favorite position again: riding Levi. The in-love part of Levi thinks that the omega must want to see his face as they fuck. To know what he likes and what he needs. Armin wastes no time reaching down and angling Levi’s cock into him, sinking down with a satisfied hum. Just like all the other times, Levi throws his head back with a groan deep in his chest. 

This rut, he actually gets breaks, unlike his other one a few weeks back. But, he’s still so sensitive ; Armin uses him well. Levi’s lost count on the number of times he’s swelled and locked them together.

Huffing playfully, Armin tosses his wild bedhead from his eyes and grins down at him, sliding the palms of his hands up Levi’s torso to lean in. Levi’s skin prickles in the wake, making him shiver and throb inside of the omega. 

Armin hums again in his throat, rubbing suggestively over Levi’s pecs. “Mmm, alpha,” he nearly purrs like he’s the one in heat. “I need you again.”

They fucked barely 20 minutes ago. Levi’s knot has yet to go down fully, but whatever Armin wants, he gets. 

Any response from Levi will be muffled by the muzzle and he suspects Armin knows that. The omega didn’t seem bothered at all to have to carry on one-sided conversations. Levi just thinks it’s best this way, as often, Armin gets angry at him if he says something he doesn’t like. And that means getting hit. 

Levi doesn’t want Armin to hit him. Or be angry. He wants to hold the omega beneath him tenderly and stay nestled between his thighs for all eternity. He wants Armin to allow him to bite him back, someday. 

He wants to be complete. To stop feeling like he’s slipping off the edge of the world every waking second. Maybe then the slight shaking to his hands will finally quell. That awful feeling of looming anxiety he harbors everyday will finally dissipate like a puff of smoke. It’s inescapable — it happens even when his eyes are shut. 

Nightmares of utter darkness, a tugging, frantic feeling in his chest, and Armin calling his name. 

“Levi~!” Armin sing-songs, snapping his fingers in front of the alpha’s nose. 

Blinking rapidly, he refocuses. His beautiful omega grins at him, lopsided, looking utterly delectable. Naked and glistening with sweat, and a sexed-out expression in his eyes.

“C’mon, alpha,” Armin teases, eyes flashing with excitement. “Show me what you got. You want to knot me? You want to fuck a whole litter into me?”

As he taunts him, Armin starts to move, slowly gaining speed as he rolls his hips. Their skin has picked up a heavy shine — Armin’s from exertion, Levi’s from fever. Panting behind the muzzle, Levi nods hazily. He’ll give Armin whatever he wants. If he wanted pups, Levi would find a way to impregnate him. Male omega or not. He’d cross oceans for his blue-eyed lover and burn the world to the ground, if that was what he asked. He could fuck a pup into him. That would be the easiest challenge.

Snatching the chain, Armin winds it twice around his hand, making it cinch nice and tight. Choking, Levi bucks up, head rushing with a wonderful floating airiness. On instinct, one of his hands flies to the collar, fingers pulling at the unforgiving metal, while the other stays on Armin’s hip.

“Mmm, yeah? You’d give me pups?”

Desperately, Levi nods again. The collar is just a hair too tight. It’s nice, but he still isn’t completely comfortable with Armin touching it. Which is strange, because Levi loves Armin and anything he does, but there’s this nagging, miniscule fear in the back of his mind…

Pulling the chain once more around his hand, Armin grunts, keeping the tension tight, tight, tight. Breath choked off, Levi's hands fly to his throat, to the chain, then to Armin’s hands, before back to his throat, body contorting beneath the omega. His head starts to feel floaty, his face hot and puffy. The extra pressure around his throat cuts off his windpipe and he heaves behind his muzzle, eyes squeezed shut, feeling like his head might pop. His fingers scratch at the metal, panicked. 

He can’t breathe. At all.

“You’d do anything for me, wouldn’t you?” Armin nearly growls. Over the heartbeat in his head, Levi has the distinct realization that Armin is in A Mood™ again. “You’ve mine Levi. I am your everything.”

Each pulse of his heart rushes through his head, so loud. He almost can’t hear Armin over it. Nor can he even spare the effort to nod along in agreement. Everything starts to get really numb; his arms especially. The entire time, Armin doesn’t lose pace. His ass keeps hitting Levi’s thighs, hilting the alpha inside of him over and over again. 

Levi’s scratching at the collar tapers off and his arms begin to droop. He’s burning up and ice cold at the same time. Thinking becomes a lot more distant and the Basement seems so far away…

The second Levi starts to fade, Armin releases the chain. 

Sucking in a painful, unsatisfying breath, he gags and chokes, eyes streaming. Barely registering the omega’s thighs shaking on either side of his hips. Or how the omega is currently milking a fresh knot Levi didn't even know he popped. 

Notes:

Hello my dears, apologies for not uploading for these past few weeks. A lot has been going on behind the scenes. For starters, I have begun taking antidepressants for the first time in my life, and I finally feel like myself again after so many long years. I do more. I like my old hobbies again, I'm active during the day, and I just generally feel happy. It's been so long since I truly enjoyed getting up everyday. It may not seem like a lot through the screen, but I am just overjoyed to feel like a person again.

That being said, there is a slight detriment - due to all the behavioral, lifestyle, and medication changes, I'm rarely on my electronics. And when I'm able to sit down at the end of my day and boot up my laptop, I'm exhausted and end up just going to sleep instead of writing. So... good and bad?

On top of this change, I've had a family member not make it to see the new year. The funeral is soon and I'm not sure if their death just hasn't set in for me yet, or if I'm so doped up on happy pills I can't process grief. I don't know. I'll figure it out when we get there I guess.

Sorry for the long rambling, but I felt like I needed to give an explanation. I still enjoy writing and I have so many fics I would love to release, but I think I'm figuring a lot of stuff out right now. I hope to get this fic wrapped up and start tackling the like, 3 other unfinished fics on my dash, but after that, it might be a bit of radio silence from me.

If you're friends with me on discord, I'm still there occasionally! :) I may not respond promptly, but I still love to have a little chitchat with my friends <3

Much love... hope you enjoyed the abo smut I guess. What an author's note. damn.

Chapter 14

Notes:

Hello! Apologies for disappearing for a while. I would say any and all updates are going to be sporadic from here on out. That includes uploading on any other fics. However, I plan on finishing this fic first, then moving onto my old Halloween fic from like, 2 years ago lol.

For this chapter, I will post a cw for mouth trauma and the correlating tag has been added. Nothing graphic in the cause of the injury, but Levi deals with the aftermath and obviously, there is pain. Just a heads up that this will now be a recurring detail in this fic. If you are squeamish about this topic, please, you do not have to continue reading.

Much love my darlings, here, is the next chapter...

It has become routine for Armin to hook Levi up to an IV before leaving every morning. Along with that: the dreaded muzzle. There is nothing Levi hates more than the muzzle now. It has become a staple in his everyday life. Something else to bear alongside his chain and collar. 

Countless needle marks go up and down his arm. Little pinpricks — some sloppily done and crusted with blood, others bruising and tender. Marks of his omega’s dutiful love. He’s always so careful and courteous of Levi’s health now. He tells Levi it takes practice to get the correct technique down and praises him for helping him with his studies. His omega is so diligent; Levi is more than eager to let his omega practice on him. He’ll be such a fine nurse one day.

Armin tells him the muzzle is to help him be good. They’ve had a few “incidents” as Armin likes to call them, where Levi had lunged for a bite, blinded by instinct and filthy want. Levi still pouts thinking about it. He can’t be entirely to blame. It’s so hard to ignore the omega’s sweet-smelling gland, right there in front of him while he plays with Levi’s cock so mercilessly. It’s not that Levi’s trying to be bad. It just happens. Most of the time, faster than he can comprehend.

He doesn’t even know he’s doing it until Armin’s mad. And by that point, it’s too late. 

So, it’s just better for everyone for Levi to remain muzzled. Armin barely likes removing it to feed him anyway.

On this particular cold morning, Levi winces as the little needle slides into his arm. Armin’s fingers are just as frigid and this is the third time he’s been poked. Armin mentioned something about his veins not ‘popping’ how he’d like. The omega grumbles under his breath again, ripping some adhesive from its packaging and securing the little needle head in place. He stands with a heavy sigh.

Plopping a hand down on Levi’s head, he huffs out, “Be good”, and just like that – he’s gone. He forgot to give Levi his breakfast and pill, but that’s okay. The alpha knows how hard Armin works every day. Levi cannot imagine the dedication it takes to go to nursing school full time and take care of him. Besides, that’s what the IV’s for!

Part of him just wishes he could do something too. But, it seems Armin is just happy with Levi being here. So, that is enough for him.

Levi sits and waits obediently for Armin to come home, eyes trained on the Basement door. He just left and Levi already can’t wait for him to return.

His stomach growls and the IV drips steadily. The muzzle is thick and muggy, his collar cold and digging into his throat. But there is no place Levi would rather be.

 

---

 

The bell above the door tingles. A sound Levi practically hears in his sleep. All three of them behind the counter are elbow-deep in cafe lattes and blended frappuccinos this fine morning, so it takes a while for him to greet their newest customer. Back to school at the local university definitely resulted in a tremendous uptick of their sales. Rush hour never seemed to stop as neither did the students. Nearly every booth and table are chalk full of buried heads and textbooks. 

After yelling the name for his current order, Levi rushes back to the counter, flipping his rag over his shoulder and booting the sleeping screen of the register back up. 

“What do you want?” He asks bluntly. Management’s always on his ass about greeting the customers and being more cheerful, but the shift lead is the one here today and she doesn’t give a rat's ass about what he says, as long as he gets his job done.

Silence meets him, prompting Levi to look up, annoyed. A retort is already on his tongue, but it dies in his throat when he meets the widest, bluest eyes he’s ever come across. The young man in front of him takes his breath away. 

He’s short, like Levi; possible even a few inches taller, which isn’t a difficult feat. Feathery soft blond hair swoops over his forehead. Overall, a very boyish charm to him. He has on a sweatshirt with the university’s logo on it — Orvud University. 

College student. Of course.

And currently looking just as starstruck as Levi feels, except not at all subtle about it. Pink tinges his round cheeks and his scent gets sweet and welcoming. Omega. 

Ah. 

Clearing his throat, Levi gruffs out. “You gonna buy something?”

Finally the poor man comes back to himself, blinking rapidly, and cheeks growing darker in color.

“Oh! I uh– yeah… I was going to get a, uh…”

Levi physically restrains himself from rolling his eyes. So many people do that. Did this guy not know what he wanted? What was he doing the entire time he was waiting?!

“A large coffee and a blueberry scone, please,” the omega rushes out weakly.

“Cream and sugar?” Levi drones, tapping a few buttons on the screen. 

“Black is fine.”

His favorite kind of order: simple. He grunts in acknowledgement and finishes the ticket. “Name?”

“Armin.”

It sticks with him. Even as he pours a tall, steaming cup of coffee and snags a pastry from their display case, the name rolls over and over in his mind. Armin. There weren’t too many people with that type of name anymore. 

Armin follows along to the pickup counter so Levi doesn’t even have to shout his name. He keeps his head ducked and eyes low. Over the smell of coffee and buttery goods, his scent is a tad too tart, like he’s embarrassed. 

Levi finds him cute. The omega mutters a small, “thanks”, as Levi hands over his purchase, and the alpha gets the urge to say something. 

“Don’t study too hard.”

Internally, he winces. That was so stupid. 

Armin snaps his head up, brows lifting. Surprise fits his face very well — in an expressive way. He has those big eyes and angelic features. Levi feels like saying something stupid again.

To his relief, Arming giggles — as soft, breathy sound. His teeth flash from beneath his lips. Levi can see just the barest hint of his omega fangs dropped further than the rest.

“I’ll try not to,” he promises, scrunching his pastry bag in his fist. Like an afterthought, he adds. “Don’t work too hard!”

“I never do,” Levi replies. The smallest hint of a smile tugs at one corner of his mouth.

The bell tinkles, interrupting whatever this little moment was, and Levi shakes his head as he dutifully heads to the register. The rest of his shift, his mind is on that omega.

 

---

 

It’s a shit day. Petra had to almost physically restrain him from launching over the counter at some shit-head who was being disrespectful, and at least three different alphas had come in in pre-rut. While he can usually keep a handle on himself, he’s in a foul mood. The stifling pheromones and bad attitudes were grating on his already thin patience.

The bell chimes and Levi forces himself to take a few deep breaths before storming up to the register. His angry stomps taper off as he’s greeted by a rather pleasant surprise. Instead of another snot-nosed brat living off of daddy’s money, Armin hesitantly pads up to the counter, a quaint messenger bag slung over his shoulder. 

“Armin,” Levi greets automatically. 

The omega’s eyes widen slightly and he nods, grinning. “Hey! I can’t believe you remembered me.”

It is Levi’s turn to be embarrassed. 

“Yeah, well–” he ducks his head, muttering, “—it’s not a common name. Easy to remember.”

Armin laughs. “Yeah, I suppose you're right. It’s nice to see you again too, Levi.”

For a moment, Levi’s caught off guard, heart stuttering in his chest. How did the omega know his name? He never said it—

Looking down at the stupid, plastic name tag pinned over his heart, he huffs. 

When he looks up, Armin has a smug look on his face. “Easy to remember,” he teases. “There’re some names that just stick with you — Levi. It’s a nice name.”

Genuine butterflies tickle his stomach and he can’t help the smile that pulls at his lips. “Thanks.”

Behind Armin, the bell rings again, and Armin gathers himself. “Right. Large coffee and a blueberry scone, please!”

He nods, typing it in. 

“Coming right up.”

 

---

 

“Oh! Don’t look now, loverboy, but your omega’s here,” Gunter teases him as Levi passes by with a scalding hot coffee pot in hand. 

“Shut up,” he mumbles under his breath, focusing on not spilling a drop. He just mopped these floors twenty minutes ago, they could stay nice for a bit. Not on the same page, Gunter nudges him in the shoulder with one beefy arm, kiltering him off balance and causing a hot platter of liquid to hit the ground. Growling under his breath, Levi dutifully empties it into the dispenser, already planning all the different ways he was going to beat Gunter’s ass when he was done. Preferably strangulation. 

When he turns around, the alpha has wisely made himself scarce. Levi scoffs in the back of his throat. At least Gunter knew what was good for him. Levi didn’t want to see his ugly mug the rest of the shift or he’d wipe the floor with it.

Gathering the mop and bucket again, Levi gets to work cleaning up the spill. Thankfully, they’re a bit slower at the moment, being an off middle hour of the day, but there are still a healthy amount of patrons in the cafe. 

As he mops, Levi feels eyes on him. Confused, he looks up, locking eyes with none other than Armin from across the floor. The omega has tucked himself away in a little corner booth, his table hidden beneath his laptop, binders, textbooks, and papers. 

The moment their gazes lock, Armin whips his head back down, furiously resuming his scribbling. Levi huffs under his breath.

Gunter could shove it. It wasn’t like that. They had plenty of freshmen who came in and thought they’d found true love. So what if Levi leaned into it for a nice tip or two?

Though, it quickly came to Levi’s attention that any time he refocused on something behind the counter, the feeling of being watched came back. All throughout the shift, Levi was certain Armin’s eyes were on him, the back of his neck prickling uncomfortably.

 

---

 

“Black coffee. Extra large — please.”

The groggy, sleep-deprived pleas of students during exam week were all too common. Plenty came into the cafe in the early morning and studied the day away, only stopping for snack and pee breaks. The record Levi had seen was 6 extra-large double shot espresso cold brews. The shift crew had an ambulance on speed dial that day.

However, this voice in particular catches Levi’s ear. Armin.

Petra’s the one working the counter currently, with him, Eld, and Gunter brewing orders down the line. The omega’s become a regular customer — everyday if Levi really had to think about it. Sometimes Levi’s at the register, sometimes he’s not. They talk when he is and Armin will often linger at the pickup counter, chatting, even as Levi rushes to fill his next orders. That’s how he (unwillingly) learned of Armin’s transfer to Orvud the year prior and how he’s going on his junior year. And that he was a nursing student. And what sort of asshole professors he had. And his opinions on Bolivian coffee beans.

Groaning under his breath, Levi tries to duck down behind Gunter’s form. The beta is muscular enough that his frame could easily shield someone as tiny as Levi from scrutinizing eyes. Of course, the man takes note of it. 

“What’s up with you?” he inquires. 

“Pretend I’m not here,” Levi says sourly. 

Nearly blowing Levi’s cover, the beta stretches up to peer over at the line, then ducks down to whisper, “What happened? Did you fuck him and ghost him?”

Cheeks coloring, Levi snaps, “No!”

“Then what’s the big deal?”

“He’s being… weird,” he grumbles. 

Gunter grins. “Uh, yeah, cause that omega wants to hang off your dick so bad. He wants you man! Go talk to him.”

Miserably, Levi shakes his head. There was no way he wanted to interact with Armin today. He just… needed a break. Armin could be, a lot.

During weekdays, the omega would always try to talk to him for far longer than socially acceptable — both at the register and while Levi made drinks.

Originally, Levi tried to be polite, grunting or nodding at particular parts of Armin’s spiels, while trying to get the specifics right of 3 pump vanilla, 6 pump caramel, double cream, whipped frappuccinos. Needless to say, the omega was not deterred. Even during a shift where Levi didn’t respond to his rambling conversation once, the omega continued to chat from over the counter.

But, it was times like these, on the weekends, where Levi got creeped out. Armin would come in just as the cafe opened, like all the others, and stay late. Except, Levi just had this feeling. Like Armin wasn’t actually there to study. It was a completely unbacked claim. There was nothing… wrong per say. It was just… Armin would pick the booths that faced the register. And Levi would see the top of his head peeking over the opposite seat for his entire shift.

Sometimes, he swore it felt like he was being watched even after he got off. Of course, when he would look over his shoulder or spin in a circle, paranoid, nothing would be there.

There was just something off about Armin. It was starting to affect his personal life too, it seemed.

 

---

 

“Psst, Levi!”

Looking up at Petra from stocking some supplies under the bar, Levi gives her a confused look.

“What?”

“It’s Armin,” she hisses through gritted teeth, not breaking eye contact with the storefront.

“Shit,” he mutters, trying to huddle more into the wall of stacked paper cups. “I’m not here.”

“You got it.”

Like from a nightmare, the bell ringing sounds throughout the entire cafe. Levi waits in apprehension, practically holding his breath. He listens to the faint conversation floating over from the register as the omega orders his usual. 

It was a weekday, which means Levi will not be trapped beneath the bar for the entire shift. Thank god. Days like these, he knew the omega had classes and labs and clinicals to attend and couldn’t possibly loiter his day away staring at him. (Things he’d learned against his will). He and Petra had learned over the past months that he was more likely to have a peaceful shift if he was not the one taking Armin’s order. 

It feels like forever before the door opens and shuts again and Petra gives him the all clear. Levi stands with a wince, knees cracking. Sourly, he rubs his quads. 

“Thanks,” he gruffs.

“Anytime,” Petra replies, leaning against the counter, chewing nervously on her nail.

 

---

 

For months, things have been peaceful. Armin comes down and visits with him whenever he can, kissing him, touching him, and molding their bodies together as one. He brings his scent, food, medicine, and happiness. Sometimes it’s twice a day if he has the time and Levi’s extra lucky. Other times, when Armin is too exhausted to make the trip down the steps, he doesn’t see him again until the day after. At least he leaves the buzzing ceiling light on for Levi when that happens.

They have a nice thing going. Life is routine, and good, and Levi barely gets hit.

Today, something is different when Armin comes down. 

He drags with him a bunch of confusing medical supplies and cleaners, sweeping aside some of the junk to make space for a folding table. Levi watches all of this from his tether, wide-eyed and intrigued. Not often does Armin deviate from their normal. He almost feels nervous, but Armin chatters on as he sets up his mystery project, which eases some of Levi’s fears. He likes when Armin talks to him. He likes the sound of his omega’s voice.

Armin doesn’t seem to be mad at him, so this can’t be a punishment.

The omega wheels a little tank down, like the kind old people haul around, fitted with a coiled rubber hose. It thunks against each and every step ominously. Next, a whole roll of crinkly paper and boxes of gloves, gowns, and hairnets.

As more is brought down, Levi’s unease starts to creep back in. It’s like an old, annoying friend barging in on his life. It hasn’t come to visit much since Armin bonded him, but it gnaws at his chest now as the omega sets up the flimsy table and cleans with so much disinfectant, even Levi’s eyes start to water. So thick, he can taste it under his muzzle.

Armin spies his worried expression from his mess and strides over to Levi’s corner, chuckling. 

“Oh, Levi. What’s the matter? You look so concerned.”

Remaining silent, Levi eyes the setup past Armin’s legs warily. 

The omega lets out a puff of air from his nose in a mock laugh and squats down. 

“This is going to be so exciting!” he comments, raking Levi’s bangs back. “I’ve been saving up to do this for months.”

As he talks, he gets one of those dreamy looks on his face, looking at Levi with twinkling eyes, and the alpha relaxes some. Armin’s excitement is Levi’s excitement. “Everything is going to be so much better after I do your operation.”

At the last word, Levi snaps his head up, fearful. Armin shushes him gently.

“Trust me, this is a good thing. You’ll see.”

Levi trusts Armin. He trusts him. He wouldn’t do anything that wasn’t for Levi’s own good.

 

---

 

When Levi wakes, confused and alone, his cheek is resting on the cold, hard ground. A low, distant pounding goes through his whole skull making him moan in pain. His mouth is completely numb; so numb, it feels like it's freezing— like he has a mouth filled with ice. Or cotton. 

There's a puddle beneath his cheek. It takes him longer than he’d like to admit to realize it’s his own drool. His mouth hangs open slack, completely devoid of feeling. His tongue is hardly better. Whatever sedative Armin gave him was powerful because Levi still feels all dopey and useless. 

Faintly, he thinks he tastes iron. It’s thick on the back of his throat and his tongue is dry and sticky. He desperately needs a drink. 

Feeling like he’s waking from the dead, Levi cracks open an eye and groans. Fuck, nothing feels real right now. Slowly, he sits up, still bracing himself against the floor. Strings of drool hang from his lips and disgust wells up inside of him. 

So filthy …

Unsteadily, he relinquishes one of his palms from the ground and swipes the back of a hand over his mouth. A spike of pain ricochets through him and he flinches back with a grunt. His gums, although numb, pulse with what he knows must be pain. 

What the fuck? He thinks. Head foggy with his drugged-out haze, he tries to fully sit up and take stock of himself. Most of him seems okay. It’s just his mouth. What has happened to his mouth?

His hands tremble as he raises them to his face. Letting his jaw fall open isn’t a hard task at all. Tentatively, he brushes his fingertips over his lips, then his bottom teeth, feeling along the edges until —

Stopping mid-motion, Levi snaps to full consciousness. No. No, no, no. This isn’t real. He runs his fingers along the top ridges again, and stops in the same exact spot. Then, his fingers fly up to the top jaw. The same. 

A horrible, awful, gut wrenching feeling rises up within him and he whimpers. No. God no. What did Armin do?!

When he brings his fingers from his mouth, inspecting them, they’re bloody and drooly. He feels sick. He sticks his fingers back in his mouth and feels all around, checking for the others — double checking those four are really gone. The same result. 

He whimpers again, a shaky, pathetic sound. His teeth… Armin took his teeth. 

Not just any teeth — his fangs. His alpha fangs! The ones he needs to bond Armin with. The teeth that make him him. Without them, he’s… How is he supposed to—?

Why?

The thought startles him. Why would Armin do this?  

Why did Armin take his teeth? Now Levi will never be able to bond anyone. He’ll never leave his mark claiming someone. He’ll never properly mate. Armin will never truly be his now. That bond will always be unattainable, out of reach. Without his fangs, he is nothing. 

He has nothing to flash if he feels threatened. His teeth are missing!

An alpha without its fangs? It’s a joke. It’s a mean, cruel fucking joke. Armin might as well have neutered him all the same. Without them… He’s hardly an alpha.

Levi hunches over himself, rocking, choking on sounds. He thinks he’s screaming, but it’s far too animalistic and guttural, even to his own ears. 

Armin defanged him.

He took them.

Tears pour down Levi’s cheeks, mixing with the filth already coating him. 

His mouth tastes like iron. It’s all over the place. It’s in the back of his throat; it’s saturated into his tongue. Old blood is dried on his lips. His tongue, fat and numb like a worm, keeps poking into the empty spaces, irritating his already bloody gums. 

Squeezing his eyes shut, Levi can do nothing but scream.

Chapter 15

Notes:

Sorry for being so inconsistent :) but thank you so, so much to DarkFireCyclone for helping me get through this chapter and the next few 💜

Life's been good! I've started doing a lot for my mental health and I think it's really been helping. But I am a little sad I'm not writing as much as I should. It could just be writer's block, or perhaps its me being so busy with irl life I can't sit still and use a computer anymore... 😭

In contrast, here is one of the darkest, nastiest chapters of this fic - happy reading!

CW: rape, self-inflected wounds, blood, mental instability

Living without his fangs is like relearning how to be human.

Armin takes care to specially cut up his meals into little bite-sized pieces. So, all Levi has to do is tilt his head back for Armin to drop them to his back molars, then chew carefully. He’s very thoughtful like that, always looking out for Levi’s needs.

When Levi was a teenager, he remembers getting his wisdom teeth out, and how scared he had been of getting dry socket. At least Armin’s medical background gives him some comfort, but it would still be utterly painful on top of an already shitty situation. Levi would just really rather not have to think about it right now.

The omega knows how to care for him and how to keep his wounds clean. Using a thumb and a forefinger, he gently opens up Levi’s mouth when he comes down, checking their progress in healing. He prepares softer foods for Levi. He mashes up painkillers in applesauce so the heartbeat in Levi’s gums isn’t so excruciating.

The loss of his teeth is a constant reminder he’s learning to live with. Every waking hour, he is aware of the four gaps behind his lips. It will take a while for him to grow used to the feeling and even then, he isn’t sure he’ll grow comfortable with the knowledge that he no longer has his fangs.

His mouth feels foreign to him. He is no longer Levi, an alpha. He is just… Levi.

No real alpha would endure the things he has anyway. The lack of fangs feels like the final nail in the coffin for him.

Throughout it all, Armin is doting and thoughtful, thankfully. Levi’s heart flutters every time he sees him, and where his fangs once sat, throb with a phantom need to complete their bond. And that shatters him just the same; like a cold douse of water. Because how can he ever bond Armin back? Why?

Why would Armin take his fangs? Didn’t Armin love him? Like Levi loved him? Surely Armin would have let Levi bond with him, someday? Levi would have waited an eternity to mark his mate and complete their bond, but Armin had taken that away from him. 

Levi can’t wrap his head around it. It doesn’t make sense.

One night, he musters up the shaky courage to ask. It’s taken him nearly a week to make the decision to do so. To potentially upset Armin.

“Armin?” His words are still slurred and fuzzy, even after some healing.

“Yes, Levi?” Armin hums. 

“Why’d you take them?” He asks in a tiny voice.

“Take what?”

“My teeth,” Levi whispers. “My fangs.”

My only way to make you mine. 

At that, Armin sets his medical bag down in front of Levi, zipping it open. When he takes Levi’s chin in hand, Levi obediently lets his mouth fall open. Humming, Armin lifts his lips clinically with his thumb and forefinger, checking the gaping holes.

“They were making you sick,” he responds after a while, dropping Levi’s face and snapping off his gloves to rifle through his bag. 

Sick… Levi didn’t feel sick? What was Armin talking about? 

“But, I wasn’t sick,” he protests, voice borderline a whine. This is dangerous. He shouldn’t be arguing with Armin, but it doesn’t make sense! There was no fever — outside of his rut — and he wasn’t coughing or refusing to eat. He’d been good. 

Armin gives him a look from the side of his eye. One that Levi knows to take as a warning and tread lightly. Armin will only take so much disrespect. “You were being aggressive — trying to bite me and doing things that I didn’t like. That’s not like you, Levi.”

He supposes that’s true. Hurting Armin is the last thing he could ever want to do. 

“I didn’t– I wasn’t trying to be bad,” he counters, voice small.

Intention was just as important, right? If Levi was not directly trying to act out, then Armin shouldn’t have punished him so severely. That wasn’t… That wasn’t fair.

“Pain can change how a person acts,” Armin says, brushing away his worries, as he fidgets through his medical bag for something. “It’s still too soon, but you’ll see — you’ll feel better now that those fangs aren’t hurting you anymore.”

He comes back with a small syringe. Levi hates syringes. He leans away. Armin follows. The needle slides into the meat of his deltoid regardless of his efforts; Armin always wins. Levi barely suppresses the emasculating whimper he lets out. 

Like a child, he argues, “But I want us to be together. I want you to feel how much I love you, Armin.”

The omega hums as he stands, snapping off his gloves. “I know, baby, but we can’t. Not when things are like this. Nobody can know about you.”

That doesn’t sit well with him. Like curdling tar, it pools heavy in the pit of his stomach. He doesn’t want to be Armin’s dirty secret. He wants them to be mates. He wants to sleep in the nest with his omega and feel fresh air on his skin.

Armin notices his sour look. “Don’t pout, Levi, it ruins your pretty face,” he scolds. He tips Levi’s chin up and presses a soft kiss to his lips. Pain flares in Levi’s gums at the slight pressure, but he eagerly leans up into it regardless, like it’s his last chance at air down here. “You’re my greatest treasure.”

Warm glow settles in his veins at the affirmation. Treasure. He is Armin’s treasure. Nothing feels better than knowing how valued he is. Even if he can’t show the world they’re mates, he can at least be satisfied to hear from Armin’s mouth how special their bond is.

“I love you, Armin,” Levi replies earnestly. And Armin’s smile is like the sun.

 

---

 

Usually, Armin is diligent about loving him. When he sinks his teeth into Levi’s neck, the world explodes into violent euphoria and for a few minutes, everything is perfect. It’s Levi’s favorite thing in the entire world. Even trumping the choke chain. However, nothing good comes without a price.

Like when Armin originally bonded him, the anxiety and utter devastation that follows when he isn’t allowed to bond Armin back threatens to end his sanity altogether. It lingers for days – weeks afterwards. Forever at the back of his psyche, haunting him like a ghost. Something thick and black and heavy and Levi has to bear it all alone.

His incompleteness. His inadequacy. The lack of stability. His failure.

Until Armin is near again. Then, the anxiety lessens some and is replaced with unbridled joy.

But things have been bad for a while and it starts to feel like Levi will never be happy again.

This whole past week, Armin’s barely been coming down. Even Levi can tell he’s nearly grown skeletal since Armin’s last visit. He’s fed him only a handful of times to Levi’s recent memory. Just by looking down at his arms and torso, the jarring sight of his bones beneath his stretched skin spans all over. His knuckles look gnarled and strange. Each rib is visible under his lean flanks. His legs don’t hold the fat and muscle that they used to.

He doesn’t pace like he used to, nor does he strain and tug to get free. Mostly because he realized he truly loves Armin and partially because he just doesn’t have the energy to be as active as he was. Really, he gets winded just from the littlest things nowadays.

Thankfully, Levi’s been extra careful with his water bucket since the accident in The Pink Nest. He can usually make it last a few days, as long as he doesn’t wash. Which is fine with him. Why would he want to wash his mate’s scent away? Especially when he gets it so rarely lately. 

…

Except… except Levi would really like a wash... And he’s running low on water.

Blinking in the dingy light, he presses a fist to his chest and rubs. It’s tight again. He can’t breathe. Or maybe he can and it’s the bond screaming to him that he can’t. There’s a tremble in his hands. 

Armin hasn’t been down in a long time. It has to have been a few days.

He’s not dead — god, he’s not dead! Levi nearly worried himself sick on Day 2, but the soft pattering of feet above head assures him that his omega is still alive and well. 

That should be enough for him to be content: to know that his omega was safe and sound within the world…

Except it isn’t.

Nothing is alright. 

Armin hasn’t bitten him in a while. In the few days he’s been gone, an itchy scab has grown over the once-fresh, bloody teeth marks on his gland. The itching is driving him insane. The hole in his chest is still there, but it’s noticeably less distracting. One could almost call it bearable. 

Joints aching, teeth chattering, Levi rubs his palm over the bite. He hisses at the sting, and he knows that if Armin was down here, he’d chide Levi for messing with it, but he doesn't care. 

Levi’s whole world has become synonymous with one word: agitation.

The lights are too bright. His skin is too tight. The thoughts in his head are all wrong. 

His heart beats uncomfortably and he’s restless like he needs to run far, far away from here. 

He’s angry. If that can be the way to describe how he’s feeling — it’s like the veneer has worn off of his reality and he is reminded abruptly that he is quite literally a defanged alpha tethered in the basement of an omega that took him against his will. The reminder makes Levi want to tear his hair out. Sink his nails into his scalp and rip away the barrier between him and those pesky thoughts. He doesn’t want to think them. He doesn’t know what to feel.

Because Armin loves him. And Levi does too.

Is the enamorment with Armin just a ruse? How can it be? When the omega was his bonded mate. When all Levi felt for him was hopeless love and devotion. How can this all fall apart so fast?

There is a bare, raw spot of him that has been exposed — one where he isn’t so love-struck. Something unbalanced and healed over. The part where he secretly despises Armin and his decision to defang Levi. Because what kind of mate would take away a person’s fangs?

The swirling turmoil inside of his head works him into hysterics and he’s practically hyperventilating when Armin does finally come back down.

By then, he’s irritable and ornery. Completely unreasonable. He practically feels outside of his own body in his actions. Though Armin’s concern is clear in his scent, Levi shoves at his prying hands and hisses, though there’s no fangs to bear. He gets backhanded for such atrocious behavior, and while he should heed the correction, he can’t tell up from down, his gums are throbbing from the hit, and wants to scrub his face into the concrete to stop fucking feeling. To stop thinking.

Everything is awful and he can’t control anything. Not his surroundings, not his emotions, not even his own thoughts. He can’t stand it!

Thankfully, Armin saves him. 

The omega snatches his chain in hand, pulling it tight and halting Levi’s stupid thoughts in their tracks. Yanking him backwards by the throat, all of Levi’s struggles redirect towards protecting his neck. Armin takes the chance to lunge against him and sink his teeth in deep ; Levi nearly screams in relief. 

At once, everything is better. The abrupt stinging pain of the irritated area being pierced again is short lived, replaced by buttery-soft relief and relaxation. Like a straight shot of alcohol to the veins, he is warm and floaty, and he loves Armin again — the way he should. The world is okay once more and Levi’s entire existence revolves around his omega. Like someone has picked him back up and set him on his feet once more.

When it’s all said and done, Armin holds his cheeks in his hands and they breathe together — until Levi is calm and Armin stops smelling so worried. For Levi’s punishment, he’s awarded the leather wrists restraints because, “We don’t use our hands to hit, Levi”, as Armin scolds him as he puts them on snugly.

The best part of the night is when Armin gives him a full meal and a cup of warm tea. Levi scarfs it all down, belly almost aching from the too-full feeling, and thinks that Armin might be the best thing that has ever happened to him. The omega brushes Levi’s lengthening hair back from his forehead and they exchange a wonderful smile. 

It glows like the warmest candle behind Levi’s eyes as the omega retreats back up the stairs once more. 

Levi manages to keep his dinner down for almost an hour before losing it all into the drain. But it’s okay: Armin fed him, and he promised to give him breakfast in the morning. 

His omega’s word is practically scripture at this point. Levi can’t wait until tomorrow; when he gets to see Armin again.

 

---

 

Crinkling his nose at the sour smell upon entry, the first thing Armin does is swap his chains and shoo him into The Pink Nest. There, Levi is allowed to lounge and relax while Armin cleans up his residue of sick. Usually, Levi only goes there when Armin is done with homework and labs at the end of the day — but it definitely hasn’t been enough time for a full day to pass. It must still be morning.

This must be a treat! Perhaps Armin has taken the day off to spend time with him. Or maybe it’s a weekend? After such a foul day yesterday, there is nothing better than the prospect of cuddling up with his omega. Levi doesn’t care. Armin is here and that is all that is important.

Even better, when Armin feeds him breakfast — it’s a warm muffin!

Anything sweet is Levi’s new favorite. Months and months of bland basics have left him starving for flavor. He hates blueberries, but this is still a delight to have nonetheless. 

Armin must have deemed his mouth healed because he lets Levi sink his teeth into the warm bread and tear off chunks all on his own. The spaces between his teeth feel odd and are still slightly tender, and he winces when a particularly hot clump of muffin gets jammed between his incisor and premolar, but he quickly swallows it down, tonguing at the intrusion.

That small autonomous action makes him excited. While he loves Armin, he prefers his small freedoms. Being hand fed the smallest morsels for weeks was a little taxing on his nerves. He needs to feel… competent. It’s so hard when he’s so limited.

He can always count on Armin to cheer him up though. Yesterday wasn’t great for either of them, but it’s comforting to know that his omega is so considerate of what he needs — that he can analyze the situation and know what to do to keep Levi’s head on his shoulders. Thanks to Armin’s quick decision, things can go back to normal now!

Speaking of — the moment Levi is finished demolishing his breakfast (which is not long at all), Armin disposes of the wrapper, then his clothes, then clambers into the nest with him, nuzzling up into Levi’s neck and purring low in his throat. 

The sound seeps straight into his bones, and within moments, he lets Armin push him back into the nest and snuggle up beside him, nearly laying on top of him. His alpha curls up in his chest, purring internally from having its mate content in his lap. His need to provide and care for is so limited, he takes whatever small gesture he can to know that his omega is happy with his actions. Levi’s own attempt at a purr is dry and coarse, sounding almost alien in his chest, but Armin doesn’t seem to mind at all. He can feel the omega smile against his neck. The softest tickle of lips against his skin. It makes Levi feel at home.

Almost coyly, Armin shifts up in his lap, hitching his leg up across Levi’s thighs and practically crawls across him to reach his lips. Lips locked in a heated kiss, Armin’s weight pins him in place. Not that there would ever be a place Levi would rather be than serving his omega. Through flesh or devotion, his body was Armin’s. 

Biting hands roll over his skin, plucking, raking, pulling, while Armin steals kiss after kiss from his mouth. The omega kisses like he’s devouring him. Never satisfied and always hungry for more. It doesn’t matter how hard Armin digs his fingers in. No matter the discomfort, Levi’s body rocks up into the omega’s, heart racing. Their bodies mold together, rutting, shifting, and grinding.

It’s heaven after so long without skin against his. 

The omega moans openly against his lips, their breath swapping like they were the same entity sharing air. Want coils low in Levi’s gut and he nearly trembles beneath his omega. Armin’s skin against his is so hot, so soft. 

A little bit of warmth down here in this frigid Basement.

Cautiously, Levi lifts his bound hands, wanting to touch as well. Armin’s mouth is harsh and sharp against his throat, but the alpha is in heaven. Each prick of teeth and sucking lips goes straight to his cock.

No sooner than when his hands hesitantly brush against Armin’s neck, do fingers dig into his side. In one movement, Levi finds himself rolled abruptly to his stomach.

Unease prickles throughout him, like a shock of lightning, and he stiffens out of instinct as Armin swings his leg over the small of his back to keep him down. What’s going on?

“Shh,” Armin whispers into his nape, lips warm against the knobs of his spine. “I want to try something.”

Armin’s words, though meant to soothe, only send another shock of discourse through him. And he doesn’t know why. He doesn’t know why such an innocent request unnerves him so. 

Armin bonded him. Armin is his everything. 

Behind his back, Armin sweeps an arm behind himself; Levi can hear the slick sounds of him fingering himself. Some of his irrational fear settles, replaced by interest. Of course, nothing is wrong. Usually, his omega doesn’t need any prep, but if that is what Armin wants, then that is what he’ll have. His cock tingles with dull excitement. Any time the scent of his bonded’s arousal hits his nose, it goes straight to his groin. 

In the few moments of reprieve Levi gets from his anxiety, laying beneath Armin submissively, sharp teeth suddenly sink into his scruff. Yelping, every limb stiffens in response, and Levi’s voice is choked off in his throat as his vocal chords are also numbed. Small, but sharp, omega fangs remain seated deep within the nerve-riddled tissue around the back of his neck, effectively keeping him immobile. Levi’s heart beats so wildly in his chest, he fears it may split open and he will die. Nervous sweat beads his brow and he can do little more than stare wide-eyed at the maddening pink of the nest. 

His thoughts race. What is Armin doing? What could he possibly want from him like this? This is not how things normally go…

They’re answered a moment later when something warm and slippery is slathered over his hole by thin fingers. If he still had control over his muscles, Levi knows he would have jumped — possibly tried to scramble away. Instead, he lets out a strangled sound that’s stuck somewhere in his chest and unable to get out. He wills his fucking limbs to move, but nothing happens. Nothing at all.

Armin grumbles around the scruff, rumbling in his throat in a disgruntled way. Hot air from his nostrils puffs over the back of Levi’s neck and saliva pools around his teeth and drips over the alpha’s throat, making his skin crawl. He’s frozen, and Armin is touching him in a new way. One he definitely does not like. 

This isn’t real. This isn’t happening. This is so much different from all the other times. Because… this is… 

This isn’t right. What is going on? No, this isn’t… happening. 

But the stroking of Armin’s fingers over his tightly furled hole brutally reminds him that it is. 

And there’s no stopping it. 

Almost gentle, fingertips prod against the muscle, trying to slip past. Levi’s breaths are uncontrollable, stuttering, and laborious. He thinks he might be trembling. 

Slowly, a single finger slides inside, the drag slow and intense. It burns and is so, so uncomfortable, so invasive. It makes Levi feel like there are bugs crawling along his back.

Barely audible, a pitiful whine builds in his throat. A sound begging for Armin to stop. To tell the omega — his bonded — that he isn’t comfortable, that he wants to stop, that he is in distress. Please stop–

Armin thrusts the finger in and out, working his slick into Levi’s passage with slow, but firm movements. It’s the weirdest sensation Levi’s ever been subjected to. He’s never done anything like this; never explored that part of his body and never desired anyone else to do so. Yet, here Armin is — taking that from him. Regardless of what Levi wants. 

When it starts to feel like everything might be bearable and the stretch becomes less uncomfortable, Levi is horribly surprised by another one of Armin’s fingers prodding in alongside the first. Then, the sensations repeat all over again, worse this time. 

The intrusive feelings amplify as the stretch is even thicker. Armin’s fingers wiggle and squirm inside of him, rubbing at his walls, thrusting into him—

A tear leaks from Levi’s lash line and he wishes the earth would open up and swallow them both whole. He doesn’t care about the Outside anymore. The wind doesn’t matter. Neither does warmth. He wants it to be done. 

No more, please…

Just then, the pressure recedes, and Armin’s fingers slip out of him with the most atrocious sensation, wringing a small sob from his lips. The hand is gone, thankfully, but the dread remains. 

He’s dirty. So dirty. There’s slick all over his loose hole and saliva all over his neck. He’s sweaty and not hard at all. And that dirty, gross, bubbling black tar feeling he hasn’t felt in a while eats away at his insides, hollowing him out. 

Why does he feel like this? It’s Armin. Regardless of what the omega does, Levi should be willing to serve him, mind, body, and soul. Anything that lets Armin someday bond—

The thought screeches to a halt in his head. Reminded brutally that he can’t ever bond Armin. Can’t bond anyone. Never will that be an option for him. It doesn’t matter what he does or what he says; it will never happen. 

Paired with everything else right now, Levi is so overwhelmed, he wants to bury his face in the pillows and never come out.

Over top of him, Armin shifts on his knees, grunting softly, and then, there’s something warm and blunt poking into him, sinking past his rim. Openly, Levi cries. A wounded, ugly sound. It doesn’t sound right as his throat is almost paralyzed from fear and reflex. But he doesn’t care anymore. Let the omega hear him. Let him hear all his anguish. All his pain.

At his sobs, Armin releases his bite, shushing him hurriedly. The omega’s hips work in and out of him slowly, the drag and push so intense, it only ramps Levi’s cries higher. 

“Shh, shh, shh, Alpha,” Armin shushes him again, roaming hands all over Levi’s sides and back. Hands that feel like they’re preparing Levi’s flesh to be eaten alive. Feeling out what parts of him are plump enough to harvest. Which boney cut he wants first. “I just want to feel you. Be good for me.”

Levi’s head hangs low between his shoulders, trying to suffocate himself in The Pink Nest, hoping that will make it stop. His chain is pulled taut as Armin wrenches his head up from the sheets, wrapping it once around his hand. 

“Stop that.” Armin’s voice is firm, and for some reason, Levi listens. He lays beneath the omega, pathetic and topped, and dares not try to struggle away. He lets the omega use his body. He allows it to happen. Like he’s always yielded to Armin.

Though Armin’s cock is smaller than his own, it still burns inside of him. Every movement feels like a rod has been cruelly rammed up inside of him. Yet, Armin sounds so pleased, moaning softly on occasion when he sinks deep inside of Levi’s ass. Making Levi… hard, despite it all. His omega’s voice is so sweet, he can’t help it. Should he be hard? Levi doesn’t want to be. He doesn’t want to be anything at all.

The alpha wishes Armin wouldn’t move so slow, regardless if it is for Levi’s comfort. It would be better if Armin took him fast. That way, they could be done sooner. To hell if it hurt — if it injured him. Dragging it on — going slow — is still torture. It hurts the same, maybe even worse. 

At least then, Armin would doctor up the wounds he left behind. There is nothing that will ever fix the broken fissure within Levi.

After some time — Levi doesn’t dare count the minutes or the seconds — the burn recedes and it just feels like something is moving in and out of him. It becomes easier for Levi to go Away. Lock himself up somewhere in his mind and wait for it to be done. Because, it all ends eventually. But then, Armin angles his hips in just a way on his next thrust, that brushes something deep within Levi. 

Like being struck with the electric prod, Levi jolts, choking on air. It feels good. He hates that it feels good.

Levi can hear the smile in Armin’s voice as the omega rasps out, “Oh, found it, did I?” He leans over Levi, moving his hips with purpose to nudge at the one horrible, god-awful, traitorous spot, making Levi writhe beneath him. “Fuck yeah, baby — let me make you feel good. Let me hear you, Levi.”

Levi grits his teeth, tears that he no longer knows the source of leaking from his eyes. A need so severe, so startling, has simmered low in his groin. It drives him insane because he can barely fathom this sort of pleasure. There’s nowhere to put it. He can’t touch himself. Can’t control the maddening heat flooding his veins. 

He wants to sink inside of something and knot, but there’s nowhere for him to go.

His cock is hard again, traitorously leaking onto the nest below. So hard, it’s painful. He tries to cant his hips down into the pillows — to rub himself against them — but it’s no use, as it barely satisfies him. Too soft and too giving to provide any stimulation. The other option is to thrust back into Armin’s hips, and he isn’t allowed to do that, because Armin is so heavy on top of him. 

When did he get so weak?

Another tortured whimper leaves him and Armin moves to snake a hand beneath their joined bodies. Wriggling between the nest and Levi’s stomach, Armin’s fingers wrap around his cock familiarly, and pleasure explodes behind his navel. Yes, yes, yes!

“Please,” he whispers in a strangled voice, dumbly trying to control his movements. He tries to rut forward into the offered hand, but it’s so difficult in his position. He can do little more than bow his hips down and hope that Armin slides his hand to his base. “Please, please, Armin, please!”

Armin starts to speed up, snapping his hips more forcefully into Levi’s sweet spot, wrenching a cry from his lips. It burns all throughout his pelvis. It’s like every wire in his brain has been redirected to what’s below his waist. He squirms on the omega’s cock, assaulted on both ends, whimpering with need and voice cracking high with pleasure whenever Armin thrusts particularly well into him. 

The omega isn’t silent in his pleasure either. Low groans mix with Levi’s pitched voice. The slick sounds of his cock working in and out of Levi’s tight hole make color rise to the alpha’s cheeks and he hangs his head again in misery. Armin tugs it back up by the chain. 

“Oh, Levi!” Armin moans right in his ear. “God– fuck, Levi.”

Gently, the hand around his cock strokes him. Not nearly as tight or as fast as Levi would like, but it makes him moan and squirm all the same, driven insane by this new feeling.

Something hot and slick drips down his balls and it takes Levi a moment to register that it’s more of Armin’s slick. The omega must be close if he was leaking all over the both of them like that. 

Indeed, Armin’s moans grow breathier and higher pitched as he works in and out of the alpha’s body. They’re both coated in sweat, and slick sullies them both between their legs like the omega were in heat. Each nudge against his prostate is like a lighting strike through his belly, making him jolt and squirm.

The hand stroking his cock — squeezing at his swelling knot — and the omega’s cock fucking into his prostate: it’s all too much. Levi feels mad with pleasure. A horrible, awful, fantastic pleasure he can’t ever imagine. 

Then — Armin lurches forward, and sinks his teeth into Levi’s bond bite once more. At once, an all encompassing completion surges through him, blissful and perfect. Drooling, vision nearly tilting on its axis, and empty gums throbbing with desire, he is taken apart and put back together again. Perfect. 

Levi stiffens, baring his gums, and sinks his own teeth into his forearm, needing to bite something. His alpha is wild and desperate for that connection that’s just out of reach. As the omega cums inside of him, he squeezes Levi around his knot so hard, the alpha howls with the intensity of his orgasm slamming into him. Spilling all over the sheets below, Levi grunts and sinks beneath the undertow, passing out from sheer exhaustion.

Notes:

I would also like to note that I truly am appreciative for all the comments you all have left on this fic as well as my others, but I will admit, I have been terrible about responding. There are over a 50 unanswered comments sitting in my inbox and every time I go to start replying, I just feel terrible and overwhelmed for not doing it sooner. I won't lie, I may not reply to all, but I do want to start trimming them down.

I promise I'm not purposely ignoring anyone! Much love 💜

Chapter 16

An incomplete indentation stares back at Levi from his forearm. Twin half-rings of deep purple brands, a result of unforgiving bone sinking deep into thin flesh.

Humans have thirty-two teeth. Eight incisors, four canines, eight premolars, and twelve molars. Those with their wisdom teeth removed can have anywhere from thirty to twenty-eight teeth. Before Armin, Levi had twenty-eight teeth. Now, he only has twenty-four. It seems like a big number, but to Levi, it is not. Not when the four most important ones are not there.

Cruelly, those four crucial marks are missing from the adornment on his arm. Levi traces over the spaces with a finger tip, detached, mind elsewhere.

Something new to count, perhaps. A silver lining. So little changes down here. With each mark Levi taps, his tongue mimics the same inside his mouth, following along.

Molar, molar, premolar, premolar, space, incisor, incisor…

Over and over again, his tongue probes around his mouth. The little gaps don’t hurt anymore. Not physically, at least; their absence never quite leaves his mind. 

Wincing, he shifts on the hard, stone floor, feeling like his bones are going to dig through his skin. He’d like to think he barely notices the cold anymore, but that would be a lie. Perhaps he is just more detached from it all. Like the numbing cold doesn’t really register out of everything else going on. 

He started washing again. Daily. Sometimes multiple times a day. Scrubbing, scrubbing, scrubbing, until his skin is raw and his nails start to pull away from the beds from the vigorous motions. He spends so much time dunking himself with frigid water, feeling droplets race down his back, making him tremble…

The cold doesn’t bother him as much anymore. 

It’s not the last time Armin ever fucks him, like that. Nor is it the last time Levi eviscerates his own arm, driven wild with need and blinding instinct. 

Thankfully, the omega tends to prefer being on the bottom, like they’ve always done it, but on occasion, he gets an itch in his system. Most of the time, Levi can bear it — he can hang his head and let Armin inside of him without causing too much of a fuss, but the misery lingers long after they’re done. Then, when he is alone, Levi will allow himself to break down. 

He still doesn’t like crying in front of Armin. After everything that’s ever happened in the Basement, that always feels the most shameful. He’s not supposed to cry.

He’s not supposed to cry out and cum as his omega fucks him. He’s not supposed to be fucked. 

He hasn’t felt this dirty in a while and he can’t stand the thought that he would ever consider something from Armin dirty, but he does. 

A bad, bad alpha. Unworthy of a reciprocated bond. It’s him. He’s the one who’s all wrong. 

 

---

 

Levi’s taken countless pills and eaten fewer meals, but he still knows it’s been months. Coming up on a year soon, if he had to take a shot in the dark. There’s not much reason to keep track other than for the sake of simply knowing. Of understanding that time is passing. Life in the Basement is all he has. The best times are when Armin is there, talking to him, and when he’s not, Levi talks to himself. 

Whispered numbers as he counts the stacks of boxes, the cracks in the concrete, or the gaps in the ceiling. Lullabies hummed under his breath. Arguments he’s imagined he would have had with Farlan, if he were still around. Old orders he somehow still remembers from the cafe. Anything to fill the silence. 

Sometimes, Levi debates asking Armin for a radio — just to have something to listen to while he’s out, but usually decides it’s not worth the risk. Armin doesn’t like him asking about Outside. And he hasn’t been hit in a while. He’d like to keep it that way. A happy Armin is the best Armin.

Only the information Armin chooses to tell him is okay. Things that Armin has deemed important enough for him to know. 

Like the fact that the cafe has brought on a new hire in Levi’s place. It only took a few months, but Armin waited to tell him until recently, revealing it off-handedly as he spoon-fed Levi dinner one night. A real gentleman, so he says. Much more friendlier than Levi ever was and usually manning the cashier because of this. An alpha as well.

“But not to worry, my love,” Armin reminds him with a wink. “My heart will always belong to you.”

The admission makes Levi nearly float from happiness. Even after all this time, Armin is not one bit less enamored with him!

Though, Levi would be lying if a twang of jealousy didn’t go through him at the mention of this new alpha in Armin’s life. An alpha with teeth; claiming fangs that could be sunk into the omega’s pretty pale neck without any complications. It’s natural to feel anxious about his unclaimed omega being around someone that Armin describes as charming and handsome. 

He’s able to bite his tongue well enough after swallowing his mouthful of dinner and it gets harder and harder to ignore the nagging fear in the back of his mind as the days go by. His visits with Armin are plagued by worry and insecurity that his omega might just grow tired of him. Surely, Armin wouldn’t… replace him?

Take another alpha in his place? Bolt someone else down here? Fuck them. Rip their teeth out.

He wouldn’t do something like that… would he?

…

But if he did… what would he do with Levi? 

What fate would a defanged, bonded alpha meet when his mate has lost interest in him?

 

---

 

Armin hums tonight as he spoons a light broth into Levi’s mouth. It’s a quiet night.

All nights in the Basement are quiet for Levi, especially when he is alone, but this is a quiet night for Armin standards. Usually, the omega talks to him — either about school, or clinicals, or idle gossip he’s heard. Sometimes, he talks about Levi’s life and how people are treating his absence, but that is a rare occasion and mostly summarized into a few words. Levi isn’t sure what to think of tonight.

The omega hasn’t punished him too terribly in recent days, but the old memories of a more barbaric time still haunts his nightmares. Armin doesn’t get angry at him so much now that everything is perfect. 

Silence used to mean anger. Now, Levi guesses it’s supposed to feel more like domesticity, but that subtle itch at his nape always prickles. Does Armin not talk to him because he talks to that other alpha at the cafe?

Does he stand there at the counter, eyes alight, hoping to capture the alpha’s attention while he rushes about making orders? Does he sit at that same booth, day in and day out, pretending to study his texts, while actually studying the staff? Does he also follow the man home after his shifts? Watch him fuck his fist or someone else?

Is that why Armin is so rare to come home and talk with Levi? A new, shiner alpha. One with intact teeth and a more willing cock perhaps.

In his lap, he worries his fingers together, digging his thumbnail into the pads of his other fingers, trying to squash down that unpleasant, fluttering feeling in his chest. 

On the next spoonful, a bead of lukewarm broth drips down Levi’s chin. Armin pauses his humming and swipes at it with his thumb. His skin is warm, warmer than the broth to the point that the touch feels scalding. The look in his eyes is one of thought and endearment. Levi just has to ask. Has to ruin it. It’s bubbling out of his mouth.

“Armin?” He whispers. 

The omega’s eyes flit up to his, perceptive. Ice cold. He cocks his head in silent invitation for Levi to keep talking.

“Do– do you still love me?”

Utter surprise washes over his omega’s features; blue eyes widen drastically and fine blond brows raise. 

“Levi! What on earth makes you ask that? Of course I do.” He replies, dropping the half-finished bowl to the side. Armin turns and gives Levi his full attention. “Why would you ever question my love for you?”

Levi swallows, the taste of his dinner lingering on his tongue. “You’re never here anymore. You talk about that one man from the cafe, saying that you were watching him— watching him like…”

Like you did with me.

Those pretty blue eyes narrow. ‘Tread carefully’, they say, but Levi does not heed their warnings. The insecurity his inner alpha feels is too great. All Levi can do down in the Basement is think and his mind has turned this situation over countless times, envisioning the worst. This cannot be ignored any longer. It has grown to be an unsettling presence at Levi's back. Having Armin unbonded to him for so long — it has not been easy to know that he is Outside, everyday, without Levi’s mark. That he will never carry Levi’s mark. 

Levi’s sure he could hear a pin drop in the Basement. “Would you ever get rid of me?”

Armin’s eyes harden. “Why would you ask me that?”

The cold, blunt words carry an anger that Levi is all too familiar with. He knows he has fucked up. 

“I-I…” Levi starts, wide-eyed, unable to encapsulate his thoughts into sentences. Unable to explain the fear he feels when Armin isn’t there or the certainty in which his brain has told him that Armin will leave him. And Armin can’t leave him. Because he is Levi’s everything—

“After all I’ve done for you?” the omega says slowly, eyes piercing into his own. “After all I’ve gone through to get you. Keep you safe. You still question my love for you?”

“No! I would never!” Levi rasps, panic rising in his throat. 

“How dare you,” Armin spits, abruptly rising to his feet. “How dare you– you useless… whore.” The omega shakes with rage as he searches for the right insults. “You may have been unfaithful, but I would never betray you. Don’t you ever accuse me of that.”

No, not that’s not what Levi meant at all — he would never! The thought of Armin loving another hurts too great. Levi almost doesn’t want to speak it into existence, but he had to know. Levi would never doubt his lovely omega like that. It was– it was different, what Levi had wanted to say. It didn’t come out right, but he isn’t sure if he should even try again. Armin is already livid. 

Snatching the bowl into his hands, Armin storms away with the rest of Levi’s meager dinner, and he feels his empty stomach drop. Not again, he thinks. Not another missed dinner.

The omega slams it down on the bottom stoop, eyes unfocused. He’s breathing strangely. Labored. Ragged.  

“After all I’ve done for you…” he mutters under his breath. He continues to mumble, feeding his rage with more bits of doubt and resentment. Things that Levi can’t quite make out. All he knows is that it can’t be good. Armin can get so worked up — to the point where no reasoning could get through to him. 

But Levi, stupid Levi, tries anyway. 

“Armin,” he begs. “Armin, I didn’t mean anything by it. I love you! I want to be with you. I’d never accuse you of that. I just wanted to know— please! I love you! Armin–!”

“Shut up!” Armin roars, spinning around to face him. “Shut up! You stupid, sniveling bitch!”

Obediently, Levi cowers away, curling in on himself, trembling like a leaf. Oh, Armin was mad. So, so mad this time. What had Levi done?

Armin turns around, raking his hands through his hair to smooth it back, and takes slow, deep breaths. “You’re right,” he whispers, voice quick, words hurried. “You didn’t mean it. You’re a good alpha. You’re mine. I wouldn’t pick just any one. You’re mine.”

Warily, Levi nods along frantically. Even if Armin’s back is to him, he must agree — show the omega he knows he’s Armin’s, wholly and entirely. He belongs to him. Mind. Body. Soul. 

“Need to fix you,” he continues muttering, bringing his fingers to his mouth, chewing at the nail. “You’re too stupid for your own good. You don't mean it. How do I fix you?”

The words are heavy weights in Levi’s stomach. When Armin fixes him… it doesn’t always feel good. 

Suddenly, Armin’s shoulders straighten, and the horrible feeling in Levi’s gut grows. Turning slowly, a glint shimmers in the omega’s eyes. He grins slightly and strides over to Levi’s side. Thin, delicate hands reach out towards him and he can’t help the way he automatically flinches away.

Sweet, soft hands cup his cheeks. Tender. Loving. Levi’s heart lifts with hope. Above him, Armin stands so tall, so bright. The basement light is like a halo around his pretty blond hair. Blinding. 

“I’ve got it,” he whispers to Levi, like they’re conspiring against the world. Just the two of them. “I can fix you. I’ll make it all better. Just leave it to me, baby.”

His throat is tight. His heart hurts, twisting in strange ways behind his bony ribs. But he nods slightly. As much as he can in Armin’s grip. 

He trusts Armin. It’s all he has down here. 

Armin will fix him. And then he won’t be so mad with Levi anymore. 

Notes:

More time passes for Levi in the basement... What else could Armin do to him that he hasn't already done?

I do hope to have this fic wrapped up in the next 5 chapters or so. Rough estimate. Don't hold me to it. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed me putting Levi through hell and back 💜😌